Between
by Ninnik Nishukan
Summary: Ryoga & Ukyo between the panels. First meeting. Yomogi Valley. Zekkyo Obstacle Race. Atami. Cursed Tunnel of Lost Love. And beyond. Mercifully short chapters.
1. PROLOGUE: First Impressions

**Between**  
By Ninnik Nishukan

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**PROLOGUE: First Impressions**

* * *

This boy was weird, that much was certain. He'd shown up, squashed Ranchan with a giant tanuki statue which he certainly shouldn't have been able to carry on his back, fought Ranchan, fought her—_called me a **man**,_ she reminded herself, gritting her teeth with the annoying memory—fought her some more, had gotten a good view of her cleavage and had finally gotten kicked into the side of the school building by Ranchan, while sporting a violent nosebleed…and all this within the space of less than five minutes!

_And what kind of guy gets a geyser nosebleed just at the sight of a little cleavage,_ she wondered, shaking her head exasperatedly as she wandered around the neighbourhood, looking, in fact, for the very same guy. She had a feeling she'd regret it, but he might prove to be useful; he had a thing for Akane, that much was certain, and if she played her cards right—

"Don't worry about us, she says? ARRGGGHHHH!!!"

Ukyo turned around, startled by the outburst. Of course; she should've known. It was that strange boy again. He certainly made enough noise to be impossible to miss when you were looking for him.

Ukyo sighed and sat down on a mailbox as she waited for him to finish his tantrum, or at least for him to pause in his shouting so she could get his attention. She watched him smash holes in a brick wall as he approached her, still completely unaware that she was even there.

"She doesn't know how I feel!!!" He wailed as he punched the telephone pole next to Ukyo, creating a large dent in it.

Ukyo took a deep breath as she tried to think of something to say.

* * *

The guy who turned out not to be a guy after all, had introduced herself as Kuonji Ukyo, 'Ranchan's cute fiancée', and he'd realized it was no wonder she'd been offended about his assessment of the engagement.

And it also made sense why she was so set on him dating Akane; it wasn't as if she was some kind of Good Samaritan or anything, she was just using him to get what she wanted. Which was fine by him, really, if it got him what _he_ wanted, too.

"I'm on your side!" She'd said. It was a strange feeling, he thought, having an ally for once. Of course he couldn't be too sure of how much she'd actually back him up or how loyal she was— he'd just met her, after all.

But she seemed to have calmed down a bit, and her voice had changed completely now that she wasn't pretending to be a boy anymore, and her hair was long and loose against her back, her facial expression almost serene as she cooked him some okonomiyaki on the house. Maybe she wasn't such a bad person?

He could tell by the way she talked and the way she carried herself that she was kind of bossy, though. Working with her might not be easy, but he'd give it a shot since he hadn't managed to make any progress with Akane by himself.

He took a bite out of the okonomiyaki.

It was the best he'd ever tasted, and she gave him a brilliant smile when he told her.

_At least he's polite,_ Ukyo thought, pleased when he asked for another.

* * *


	2. ONE: Scene from a City Dump

**Between**  
By Ninnik Nishukan

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**ONE: Scene from a City Dump**

* * *

Hibiki Ryoga sat and surveyed the vast view before him. It wasn't a beautiful lake or a mountain range or a forest or even a nice city skyline; nope, this was mountains and mountains of garbage.

It looked bad and smelled worse, but it was oh, so perfect to look at when you were depressed and didn't have the energy to try to talk yourself out of it.

This time Ranma had simply gone too far. The thing when he'd pretended to be a secret admirer in the girl's locker room way back, that had been nothing; pretending to be his actual fiancée in a way so convincing that Ryoga had even started retaliating the affection, that was just—

It made him feel like throwing up. If Ranma hadn't literally _fought him off with a stick_, he'd have actually managed to get _his first kiss ever _from his _worst rival_ and—

"Urgh!" He let go of an unintelligible cross between a grunt and a scream of disgust, scrubbing at his face with both hands, pulling at his hair in an attempt to be rid of the nauseating mental images.

Maybe if he dropped Ranma in a bottomless pit somewhere, no one would be the wiser.

No, that wouldn't work, because _he_ would still have to live with the memories. Okay, so what else…?

Maybe if he went and put his head in the garbage press, it would pop like a doll's head being stepped on, only a lot messier—

"I've heard about being down in the dumps, but this is ridiculous."

Ryoga looked up; if he hadn't been feeling so numb with depression, he might've been startled that someone was speaking to him here, of all places.

He felt a mild, detached sort of surprise when his gaze met with the bright, amused eyes of the self-proclaimed Cute Fiancée. "Ukyo?" He looked at her blearily, his own voice sounding dead to him.

"None other than." She grinned, tilting her head at him curiously. "What in the world are you doing _here_? I kinda doubt you're dropping off any old furniture."

"Wh-what about _you_?" He retorted defensively, suddenly embarrassed to be found moping around at the city dump. "What are _you_ doing here?"

Ukyo raised an eyebrow. "Dropping off old furniture." She answered in a deadpan voice. "I needed to get rid of some of the old stuff from the people who lived in my apartment before me."

"Oh." Ryoga muttered, feeling stupid.

Pursing her lips, Ukyo leaned down, peering at him closely. "We were looking for you, you know. Why'd you just run off like that?"

Refusing to answer, Ryoga only bit his lip and averted his eyes, his brows knitting.

Standing up again, Ukyo gave an irritated sound. "Don't tell me you're still sulking about the thing with Ranchan!"

Ryoga's eyes darkened, his fists tightening. She could see his Adam's apple bobbing and his face twitching just a little, as if he had trouble containing his anger.

Ukyo sighed heavily, rolling her eyes. "Okay, so you thought he was a girl, so what?"

Ryoga winced. "Don't remind me…!" He groaned.

She shrugged. "I thought he was a girl, too, you know."

He sent her a sharp look. "Yeah, but you didn't know about the curse! I _did_!"

"Well, who'd know that was Ranchan, anyway?" She scoffed. "He did kind of really go out of his way to trick you, didn't he? I mean, he was prancing around in a wig, make-up, a dress and glasses and he was talking in a funny voice!"

Ryoga screwed his eyes shut, his teeth gritting. "I really, really mean it…_don't_ remind me." He ground out.

She frowned, growing impatient in the face of his gloom. "Jeez! So you thought he was your long lost fiancée, so what?"

Ryoga swallowed, trying not to be sick. Gods, the things he'd done in the park…he'd tried to _kiss_— how could Ranma _fool _him like that? Didn't he have _any_ consideration for other people's feelings at all? "You don't have to rub it in!" He said tightly. "I _know_ I was an idiot for falling for it, okay? Are you _happy_ now?"

"Sugar," She began, her hip tilted in challenge as she looked completely unimpressed at his anger. "I _am_ a long lost fiancée, okay? So if one should happen to turn up for you one day, it wouldn't be that far-fetched."

Ryoga looked up slowly, perplexed. She _wasn't_ making fun of him? "Y-you mean that?"

Again, she shrugged. "It wasn't _that_ stupid. These things just happen."

Watching her calm face for a while, he finally let his breath out. Suddenly it felt like all the brooding and agonizing had been utterly pointless.

Ukyo regarded the lost boy thoughtfully before taking a step forward. "Listen, uh, Ryoga…I was wondering…you see, the thing is that I've just moved here and don't really know many people here yet, so I just thought…you know…"

Ryoga looked up at her in bewilderment; was this forceful, bossy tomboy actually being _shy_?

"Maybe you could come to the shop again and we could talk about Ranma and Akane some more." Ukyo suggested, smiling tentatively.

"Uh…" Ryoga hesitated. "I don't really think…um, I mean, last time was kind of a big disaster…"

Ukyo growled, her eyes narrowing. How could he be so _ungrateful_? "I got you a date with Akane, didn't I?"

"That's true," He admitted grudgingly. If it hadn't been for Ranma's interference, Ukyo would've provided him with the perfect opportunity to confess his feelings to Akane. "Thank you, I guess…"

Ukyo blinked at his show of gratitude, but then her expression eased into a smile. "Yeah. So come visit me sometime, okay?"

Ryoga nodded slowly. "Why not?"

It might be nice to have, if not quite a friend, then at least someone who was on his side. He knew that there were other people who wanted to break up Ranma and Akane, like Shampoo, but Ryoga really couldn't see himself working with her. For one, the girl's tactics were a bit dodgy. He really didn't want to get involved in any freaky potions or other types of Amazon magic.

Besides, he didn't want to risk having an irrationally jealous Mousse to fight off if he started cooperating with Shampoo. Luckily Ukyo, like himself, seemed to be one of the few people he knew that _didn't_ have anyone chasing after her. Ranma had Shampoo, Ukyo, Kuno and Kodachi, Akane had Kuno and a bunch of other guys at school– and himself, but she didn't know that; besides, what he was doing could hardly be called chasing since he barely even managed to _talk_ to her— Shampoo had Mousse, and Mousse had…well, it didn't matter who was chasing him or not since he didn't _want_ to break up Ranma and Akane.

Satisfied, Ukyo waved at him as she left. "Come by tonight, then, okay?"

"Okay…" Ryoga agreed, waving.

It wasn't until she'd gone that he remembered that Ukyo didn't know about his dismal sense of direction and that he didn't have the first clue about how to get to Ucchan's Okonomiyaki from where he was.

* * *

**Author's note:** Next up is chapter two, _Yomogi Valley._ I'll publish it in a very short while since I didn't leave my brain behind this time and decided to make chapters of twenty-five pages like I did with _Omiyage._

I'm not doing this story to procrastinate chapter seven for _Omiyage_; this is a project I've wanted to do for a while.

* * *


	3. TWO: Yomogi Valley

**Between**  
By Ninnik Nishukan

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**TWO: Yomogi Valley**

* * *

Ukyo stomped through the forest, sending little furry creatures scuttling out of her way and causing birds to take flight from nearby trees. She was fuming. There he was, the _one _chance Ranchan had to get his strength back, and he just skipped off like some little sissy boy, wailing about how he was too sensitive to fight Ranma when he was weak? What the hell was _wrong_ with him?

He really _was_ a moron!

And she was on a moron hunt.

After another frustrating twenty minutes, she finally found him sitting by a stream, staring gloomily into the babbling water and half-heartedly chucking pebbles into it.

She almost snarled. What an idiot! He was obviously sitting there feeling _sorry_ for himself! He probably thought his pose and expression made him look like a tragic, lonesome hero or something, too! In reality, it just made him look sulky and bored.

"You did it on _purpose_, didn't you?"

His head snapped up like a startled deer's, and it was no wonder; her voice was like a whip-crack in the quiet forest, annoyance and outrage wrapped around a grudge cutting through every syllable.

"Wh-what?"

She headed for him with quick, menacing steps. "You _want_ him to be weak, you coward! That's why you're holding back!"

"Ukyo—"

"_Isn't_ it?" She snapped.

As he began to recover after her surprise attack, Ryoga began to get angry as well. "_Of course_ I don't want him to be weak! If I won a fight with him when he's like this, it wouldn't be a fair fight, so it wouldn't be a real victory," He gritted out, fingers curling into fists.

"But you _have_ to fight him!" She exclaimed, her voice breaking a little. "How else do you think he's going to get normal again?" She'd hated seeing Ranchan like he'd been, so unhappy and devoid of hope, and she didn't ever want to see it again. Suddenly she noticed Ryoga staring at her oddly and realized that her cheeks were wet; self-consciously, she wiped them off with the back of her hand. "Don't you see…?" She tried again imploringly.

Ryoga gave her a worried look. "Listen, I care about it, too! I'm just afraid I'll—"He halted, staring her straight in the eyes. "Ukyo, do you want me to _kill_ Ranma?" He asked her in a level, straight voice.

"What?" She looked thunderous.

"Do you want him to _die_?" Again, his voice seemed so unmoved by what he was saying that she was utterly provoked.

"What the hell do you think you're—"

"Because that's what might happen if I really go all out in a fight with him when he's like this," Ryoga interrupted her quietly.

Comprehension dawned. She stared at him. "But…"

"I may have talked big, you know, about not guaranteeing for the safety of his life and all, but when it comes right down to it…" He met her eyes seriously, trying to make her understand. "I'm still only sixteen, Ukyo. I've never killed anybody, and I really don't think I wanna find out what it's like, either."

Ukyo nodded slowly. "I know, but…can't you just…I don't know…be careful about it?"

Ryoga laughed a short, humourless laugh. "It's not that easy."

"I know…" She mumbled as she watched him walk back into the forest. He obviously wanted to be alone. Hopefully he'd find his way back to camp sometime during the night.

* * *

Ukyo sighed as she wrung up the wet cloth and continued cleaning Ryoga's wounds, idly dabbing a bit of disinfectant here and there.

It had come as quite a shock when the boy had literally dropped right out of the blue, and she'd been more relieved than she'd realized when she'd discovered that he was still alive.

She'd recognized the Hiryuu Shoten Ha from her own encounter with it, but this one had been much more powerful.

Ranchan really didn't have a more formidable opponent than this crazy young man. Sure, Ranchan had met many more skilled than Ryoga, but when it came to bouncing back, Ryoga was the master. The sheer stamina and endurance he possessed was kind of scary sometimes; it wasn't odd that some of the students at Furinkan whispered about how…_inhumanly _strong he seemed. He just would not give up, which was odd, really; considering his depressive nature, you'd assume he'd be a quitter.

_Would such a fall have killed **me**_? Ukyo wondered then, and shivered. "Poor guy," She murmured, brushing aside his bangs, limp with sweat. He'd taken quite a beating.

She knew all this must mean that Ranchan had finally managed to learn the Hiryuu Shoten Ha, but it was kind of hard to rejoice when she was looking at Ryoga's battered and bruised, unconscious form, and when she heard him start to mutter and moan in his sleep, as if he was having a nightmare. She began to get nervous; if this was what Ryoga looked like, how was _Ranma_ doing?

There was another weird thing about how the Furinkan students gossiped about Ryoga, comparing him to a monster; it couldn't just be his strength, because Ranma was pretty evenly matched in physical strength with Ryoga, which sorta made _him_ just a little inhuman as well, but nobody thought about it, because Ranchan was such an easygoing guy, always playing around— the thing that made people just a little afraid of Ryoga was how completely _angry_ he seemed to be, how much he soaked in his own rage, how he always seemed to take the fights much more seriously than Ranma; maybe too seriously, like he might actually go through with his death threats…

…and yet, from what he'd told her…

"_I've never killed anybody, and I really don't think I wanna find out what it's like, either."_

She believed him. She didn't really know why, but she did. She really couldn't see him going out of his way to help Ranma just to kill him afterwards, that didn't make sense; she really couldn't see him as someone creepy enough to think like that.

He'd have to have been _very_ angry for Ranma to be able to produce that big of a Hiryuu Shoten Ha, though. She'd have to ask him about that, why he'd suddenly changed his mind about fighting Ranma.

Ranchan must've done something to really provoke the boy, that much was certain, and Ryoga was so _easy_ to provoke, too.

It was so strange; he was _so_ full of headless rage, so overemotional and so gullible, but at the same time he was so cynical, so insecure and so shy…

In the end, Ryoga's tossing and turning and groaning got so bad that she just decided to knock him out. At least he'd get some rest, and she wouldn't have to listen to it while somewhat guiltily wondering if her earlier, pushy demands had played any part in the boys ending up like this.

* * *

"Hey, Ryoga! Don't forget your stuff!"

Ryoga put aside the boulder he'd been about to drop on Ranma; suddenly Ukyo had come into sight again, just past the hill. Ryoga felt puzzled; was she actually _waiting_ for him?

Ranma, seeing his chance to escape, quickly scrambled to his feet and ran after Akane, his father and Cologne.

"It's over here," Ukyo said, pointing to his tent and backpack, smiling fondly at Ranma as he hurried past with a sheepish grin.

Ryoga was very quick to disassemble the tent, and she could tell it was something he did often. They could still see the others walking far in front of them when they were done and started to follow.

They walked in silence for a while, Ryoga glancing sidelong at Ukyo.

Finally she sent him a curious look. "What?"

"Why did you bother waiting for me?" He asked, sounding just a tad suspicious. "We won't catch up with them now unless we run."

Ukyo shrugged. "I figured you might want the opportunity to see the big fight between Ranchan and Happosai."

Ryoga just looked at her, not quite understanding.

"Look," Ukyo sighed. "Ranchan told me about your directional problem. I was getting kinda offended since you didn't come visit me when you promised, so I complained to him about it and he told me. So I thought I'd help you get back Nerima."

"Oh." Ryoga looked down, biting his lip. It was always humiliating when people found out about one of his many weaknesses. Unfortunately, his terrible sense of direction was one of those weaknesses it was particularly hard to hide. "Sorry about that…" He mumbled.

"Ryoga?"

"Hmm?"

"I don't know how you did it, but…thanks."

"What?"

"Thank you." She repeated sincerely.

Again he seemed suspicious. "What did_ I_ do?"

Ukyo rolled her eyes. "You helped Ranma learn the Hiryuu Shoten Ha, of course!"

Ryoga scoffed. "No need to thank me. I was just angry."

Ukyo tried to look as if she hadn't already suspected this. "Angry?"

His voice lowered into a deeper, darker tone. "Ranma made it look as if he'd…he'd _done_ something to Akane."

Ukyo's eyes widened. "So you snapped."

"Yes." He said simply.

"I guess I can understand that." Ukyo sighed, looking a bit exasperated. "Jeez…he must've been really desperate."

Ryoga just scoffed again, refraining from comment.

They fell silent again as they walked, keeping a steady pace as they were both deep in thought, in no rush to catch up with the others.

"Ryoga?" A mile or so down the road, Ukyo finally spoke up.

"Hmm?"

Ukyo took a deep breath. "No matter the reason why, you did help him learn a technique that might get him his strength back…and I really think Ranchan's glad to know you."

He turned his head to look at her, slightly surprised.

"When it was just me and his old man here, before you and Akane and Cologne came, he told me how you…you know, when you defended him against Mousse and Kuno and the Principal."

Ryoga frowned deeply, disbelieving. "He really told you that?"

"Well…" Ukyo looked thoughtful, "I could tell that he thought it was really sort of humiliating, needing help from his rival like that, but still…even though he hasn't exactly thanked you or anything…don't think he was _completely_ ungrateful, okay?"

Ryoga looked a bit confused over this bit of news; it was always hard to believe it when Ranma showed any good intentions towards him.

"He really seemed to think you'd come all this way out here just to help him, too." Ukyo began innocently.

Ryoga just grunted noncommittally.

"Well, did you?" She asked after a while, getting impatient. She had to admit she was a little curious to find out more about Ranma and Ryoga's odd relationship. They were rivals, and when they did battle, it looked pretty serious, yet there seemed to be a kind of grudging sense of companionship there, not quite a friendship, but…

To her surprise, he turned fiercely red when she asked that question, and she laughed a little when she finally caught on.

"You got lost, didn't you?" It wasn't really a question.

His blush intensified and he cleared his throat, embarrassed.

"Thanks, anyway," Ukyo laughed heartily. "It all turned out all right in the end, now didn't it?"

"Guess so," he grumbled.

"That's what matters." She said firmly as they walked on in the gloom of night, headed towards Nerima.

It was going to be one hell of a fight.

* * *

**Author's note: **I've always thought Ukyo's comment (_"What an idiot.)"_ after Ryoga runs off as all _Mr. Sensitive_ was kind of funny. I could very well imagine her hunting him down and knocking some sense into him to get him to help Ranma.

Andwhat happened in this chapteris as good a reason as any for how Ryoga managed to get back to Nerima in time for the fight and why he seemed to hang around Ukyo while they watched the fight. And since I see the world through spatula-shaped, yellow and black-tinted glasses, this is my solution.

Next up is chapter three, _Zekkyo Three-legged Obstacle Race. _I'll probably publish it this weekend.

* * *


	4. THREE: Catagelophobia

**Between**  
By Ninnik Nishukan

* * *

**THREE: Catagelophobia**

* * *

"No wonder you're always so cheerful."

"Hmm?"

Ryoga looked up, blinking rapidly, completely disoriented; he'd been staring at the same spot for so long that multi-coloured dots had begun to dance in front of his eyes. His mind had been focused only on the lingering humiliation, the laughter ringing in his ears; it had been weeks since it happened, but he just couldn't forget it. The worst thing about it was that he couldn't even blame Ranma this time; it was Ryoga himself who had gotten himself into that whole mess, and it was Ryoga himself who had gone to Ranma for help.

As the dots started to clear away from his vision, he saw that the owner of the voice had been Ukyo, standing a few metres away from him.

"I have to wonder where I'm gonna find you next." Ukyo tilted her head at him, grinning. "First it was being down in the dumps at the city dump, now it's staring wistfully out across the picturesque remains of a demolished apartment building. What's next, I ask myself, where will the next Hibiki Moping Grounds lie?"

As he was simply staring at her as if she was some kind of mirage, she got the feeling that she'd lost him; he'd obviously been miles away and all of her sarcastic humour had gone right over his head. Sighing, she walked up to him, swinging her grocery bag. "What's wrong, Ryoga?"

"Ranma," He managed to press out.

She gave a quirky, not-quite-humorous grin. "Isn't it always?"

"I…I won over Ranma. And then I lost."

She was about to follow up with _"Don't you always?", _but wisely held her tongue. Nobody liked people who twisted the knife, so she just sent him a look of polite interest.

"I don't really care about that, though." He continued in a tired voice. "I'm used to that."

"What is it, then?"

He glanced at her, vaguely wondering why he was even telling her this, but went on. Who else but Ukyo could he tell this to, anyway? Ranma and Akane had already witnessed the whole thing, and he hadn't seen his parents for about a year. "It's just…the way it happened." He drew a deep breath. "The thing is that I helped this starving old man in the forest, and in return he applied this ancient martial arts calligraphy technique on me—"

Ukyo arched a sceptical eyebrow. "Martial arts…_calligraphy_?"

Ryoga mirrored her look. "Ukyo…you do martial arts _okonomiyaki_." He pointed out flatly. "Is this really any stranger?"

"Fine," Ukyo conceded, scowling. "You just tell your story."

"Anyway, he applied this weird technique to me called the Mark of the Gods, and suddenly I was the world's strongest man—"

"What, _literally_?"

He sent her a slightly annoyed look. "Yeah, _literally_. Now stop interrupting."

Ukyo just grinned innocently.

"And I beat many dojos on my way to Nerima…" He continued; whether the dramatic pause was intentional or not, Ukyo didn't know, but she kind of thought his next words warranted a pause for effect. "…and I beat Ranma."

"Really?" Despite herself, she was starting to grow impressed. _Even after he'd learned the Hiryuu Shoten Ha?_

"Yes," He said solemnly. "Even him. Except this time I didn't even want to win, I wanted to lose against him…"

"Why?" She asked incredulously.

"Because of this," Ryoga said, scribbling something on a small note pad from his pocket with a pencil stub. He felt she would need the visual aid to fully appreciate the extent of his humiliation.

She blinked with incomprehension as he showed her the note pad. "It's a cute smiley face, so what? What am I supposed to be looking at here?"

"This…this was what the Mark of the Gods looked like. The old geezer drew this on my stomach," He mumbled, examining his shoes as if they were the most interesting things he'd ever seen, bracing himself against the laughter.

And it came; loud and rich and disbelieving. "Wh-what? _This_ was what gave you your power to be the _world's strongest man_?

Ryoga winced, trying to endure it.

"Wow…" Ukyo said eventually, looking again at the doodle on the note pad. "You'd kinda think that something called the Mark of the Gods would look more, I dunno, awe-inspiring, like a dragon or a tiger or at least a lightning bolt or something…wouldn't you? Not like _this_ silly thing!"

Ryoga nodded eagerly. "_See_? That's why I wanted to get rid of it! People would laugh! Whenever I went to the doctor, the beach, hot springs, things like that…people would laugh! A-and I could never s-show my stomach to the woman I loved…"

Ukyo snickered. "I don't know, it _is_ kind of cute!"

"This isn't funny!" Ryoga glared at her. "No woman could ever take me seriously if we were going to…to…um, y-you know…when I looked like that!"

Ukyo gave him a weird look. "Wait— you don't still _have_ that thing on you, do you?" Putting her grocery bag down, she advanced on him with a curious, scandalized look on her face. "Let me see—"She said as she reached out and started to tug the front of his shirt upwards.

Ryoga shot to his feet. "Wh-wh-what the hell do you think you're _doing_?" He yelled, his face turning crimson with outrage and embarrassment. "It's already _gone_, okay? There's nothing to see!"

Ukyo put her hands up in a placating manner, backing off. "Calm down, I was just curious!"

He stared her down for a while before he finally seemed to relax a bit. "Anyway…" He began again, aspiring to look nonchalant, "The only way to get rid of it was to lose to someone in a fight, so I tracked down Ranma to get him to fight me, but the Mark of the Gods didn't just give me super strength, it gave me an impregnable defence— I mean, I had _flawless_ reflexes, so he just kept on losing and losing, couldn't even get a single punch in…!"

The lost boy looked miserable as he told that part of the story, but Ukyo wasn't fooled. "Oh, come on…you can't say you didn't enjoy that at all…!" She scoffed, nudging him with her elbow.

Ryoga's face flushed just slightly at her digging question, digging gaze and digging elbow, his conscience eventually forcing him to nod reluctantly. "Well, yeah…for while there it _was_ very nice to be able to put Ranma in his place for once, but there's no honour in winning a fight not based on the fact that I'm better but just because I'm using some stupid 'magic mark' some old geezer gave me…it's like I didn't _earn_ that victory at all. It's completely meaningless."

Ukyo swallowed as those gloomy words struck a chord with her. "Did I tell you that Ranma's working for me for a while because he owes me money?" She began.

Ryoga shook his head, his expression turning curious.

Ukyo nodded. "Yeah, he wagered the deed of the Tendo Dojo to a gambler called the Gambling King when we were little, and then last week the gambler came to collect. Mr. Tendo got so mad he kicked Ranma out, so he had to stay with me, and I had to lend him money and even the deed to my restaurant so he could practice his gambling and win back the dojo…and the rest of the Tendo house after Mr. Tendo managed to lose that as well to the Gambling King." Ukyo shrugged. "And since Ranma needed a lot of training since he's the worst card player in the universe, I guess you can safely say that he now owes me quite a bit of money."

Ryoga's eyes widened. "Ranma's _that_ lousy at…?"

"Let's just say that if you ever really do feel like winning over him at something, invite him to play poker," Ukyo shook her head, smiling slightly. She loved her Ranchan, but the fact that he sucked at every kind of card game imaginable was pretty much inescapable. Everybody had their weaknesses, it seemed.

Ryoga's mind was still trying to fathom a reality where Ranma could actually lose at something, but finally, he smirked. "In that case, maybe I _will_ challenge him."

"Careful, though," Ukyo laughed a little, "he won't stop at cheating to win!"

"I bet." Ryoga grumbled. "Hey, wait a minute," he objected as he remembered something, "you said you even trusted him with the deed to your restaurant! Why in the world would you do that when he's so bad at card games?"

Ukyo raised her head high, clenching her fist dramatically. "Because I had faith in him! That's what I call _dedication_!"

"Uh huh." Ryoga said flatly, clearly not buying it. He was painfully aware that he was usually pretty gullible, but even he could see that something didn't sit right with what she was saying.

Ukyo glanced at him grudgingly. "Also, he promised to become my cook if he lost." She admitted; it would have been very nice if she really _could _have claimed to have let Ranma have the deed 'based purely on the deep trust and love' she had for him, but she'd always been a bit cynical, and even love wasn't _that_ blind. It had been a trap for Ranma, pure and simple; if he lost, he'd have felt guilty enough to stay by her side for long enough to give her time to make him love her back. It wasn't a very nice way of thinking, she supposed, but she had to take every chance she could get in the war of love.

"Thought it might be something like that." Ryoga grinned briefly before frowning. "But how did he even win if he's so lousy at it? 'Cause I assume you still have your restaurant, right?"

She gave him a 'duh' kind of look. "He _cheated_, of course."

Ryoga groaned, slapping his forehead. "Of_ course_…"

Her face went serious, then, as she once again mulled over the implications of what she'd done, trying to guilt-trip Ranma into staying with her. "You know…I was happy about Ranma working with me until I talked to you." She murmured.

"What?" Ryoga frowned at her, feeling indignant. "But that's not my fault, is it?"

"No, it's not…" Ukyo looked down at her feet. "I don't know…I guess that if the only reason he's working with me is because he feels like he's forced to do it because of debt— it's nice to have him around, but it's not very romantic, is it?" She said absently, talking more to herself than to him. "It's like what you said about the meaningless victory, right? If he comes to me not because he wants to, but because…well, it's like winning not because of your skills but just because of some kind of trick." _Or guilt,_ she added to herself, a small sting in her chest as her conscience acted up. _And I can't believe I actually staked my restaurant…talk about a gamble…_

"Um…" Ryoga didn't quite know what to say to that. He was relieved when Ukyo finally looked back up at him, a smile on her lips, but not in her eyes. It was still kind of awkward, but at least she didn't ask him to comment on what she'd said.

"Anyway, let's hear the rest of the story, huh?"

"Oh, um…right." Ryoga took a breath as he composed himself, getting ready to finish the story. Even with the parts concerning P-chan carefully edited out, it was surely a tale of true humiliation.

"Well…of course Ranma figured out how to beat me in the end, but when it happened, and this was the _really_ fun part," He added bitterly, "we were in the dojo behind this curtain because we thought we could have some privacy, but it turned out that the dojo was being rented out to some sort of local ladies' club, and just as I was standing there with my shirt up, writhing around, trying to make that moronic face on my stomach change its shape because Ranma had figured out that was the only way it lost its power so he could catch me with an open guard— well, whaddaya know if the curtain doesn't swing open and Akane, Kasumi and basically all the ladies in the neighbour see me and I suddenly have an entire mob laughing and pointing at me!" Ryoga ranted; he still didn't quite know why he was telling her this, but somehow it felt really good to get it all out— keeping yourself company by talking to yourself really only worked if you had multiple personality disorder or something.

Glancing over at Ukyo, he saw that she was staring at her with her mouth open.

"A-and then Ranma knocked me out with a mallet and the mark disappeared." He finished, going a bit quieter as he grew self-conscious under her flabbergasted gaze.

There was an odd sound then, as of the engine of an old car that wouldn't start, only softer; he turned his head to her once more and caught her trying to withhold a sputtering laughter, but giving up as it all came tumbling out, loudly and obnoxiously.

"Wahahahahah!"

Ryoga reddened with anger. "I told you! It's _not_ funny!" He objected, wagging a furious finger at her.

Ukyo gasped for air. "Yes, it is!" Didn't he realize that if he'd told the exact same story with a slightly different tone of voice, it would've been a comedy?

"It's not!" He barked. "It's not funny! It was humiliating! They called me _stupid_! And Akane saw me like that!"

Ukyo laughed so much she shook as she picked up the pad with the doodle of the Mark of the Gods on it. "L-look at this!" She said, shoving it in his face. "You can't tell me that if the situation was reversed and Ranma looked like this, you wouldn't laugh!"

"I wouldn't!" He insisted. "Because it's really embarrassing to become a laughingstock like that!"

"_Loooook _at it," Ukyo said in a sing-song voice, shaking the pad a little. "Don't _tell _me you wouldn't even have _smirked_ a little if _Ranma_ had danced around with _this_ on his belly, because I won't believe you!"

Ryoga finally looked down, a little shamefaced. "Okay, maybe I would, but…here I'm pouring my heart out and all you can do is _laugh_? Didn't you understand _anything _Iwas trying to say, Ukyo?"

Abruptly, Ukyo's laughter ended and she dropped the note pad into his hands. "I know all about being a laughingstock, Ryoga," She told him in a quiet voice. "How popular do you think it is for a girl to dress and act like I do?"

Ryoga looked up sharply, surprised; Ukyo had never mentioned this before.

"But I got over it," Ukyo went on, holding her head a little higher, her back a little straighter, "and so should you."

Ryoga wasn't so sure she actually _had_ gotten over it, but because he didn't want her spatula to suddenly acquire a Ryoga-shaped dent in it, he decided not to say anything about it. "If you say so," he mumbled.

"Yeah, I do say so," Ukyo said firmly, gathering up her bag of groceries. "What, did you expect me to pity you?" She put her hand on her hips, peering sternly at him. "I don't think you wanted pity," she went on, answering her own question, "I think you only needed to be cheered up, and that's what I've done, right?"

Ryoga only gave an evasive grunt, not meeting her eyes. He did feel a bit better, but he didn't want to admit to it, stubbornly hanging on to the last straws of his impressive sulk.

"Now, do you need me to walk you anywhere?" Ukyo asked, her voice going into a friendlier vein. She had really needed to laugh like that after thinking all those negative thoughts about Ranchan, and she was grateful to Ryoga for providing her with a little pep again; she supposed the reason she _had_ laughed so much was _because_ she'd needed it so badly. Ryoga's story was funny, but it wasn't _that_ funny. "As long as it's on my way, it's no problem. What about the dojo, for example?"

Ryoga brightened a little; could it really be that he might actually get to where he was going today? "Um, if you don't mind, could you take me to my house?"

Ukyo blinked; technically, she supposed there _should_ exist a Hibiki home somewhere, but it was still a foreign concept to her that the ever-wandering Lost Boy could have a home other than the tent he carried on his back.

"Are you sure you don't want to visit the dojo?" She prompted hopefully. "You could talk to Akane again…" …_and try to steal her away from my Ranchan,_ she added to herself.

Ryoga looked a little torn at that, but nevertheless shook his head. "I would like that very much, Ukyo…just not today." Seeing Akane again would be nice, but after everything that happened last time, he felt like staying away for a while now that he wasn't stuck in his pig form. And there was always the hope that one of his parents might accidentally be home this time…

"Okay," Ukyo said uncertainly, hoping his house wouldn't turn out to be in Okinawa or something, "what's the address?"

* * *

To Ukyo's great relief and even surprise, Ryoga's house wasn't far from her restaurant; she would have to go a little out of her way as it wasn't on the way to Ucchan's, but she supposed it was all right since it wasn't all that far, and besides, she couldn't turn him down when he was looking so thankful.

As they walked, she suddenly remembered something. "Hey, did I tell you that the other day I told Ranchan about who it was that found the missing piece of the moxibustion chart?"

"What?"

"Yeah, he was really surprised when I told him it was you. I think he thought it was Cologne who found it or something."

He looked at her with a bewildered expression. "Why did you tell him?"

"It was only right that he got to know, wasn't it?" Ukyo shrugged. "That was a big favour you did him there, and I guess I wanted to thank you for stopping me in accidentally shredding it to pieces with my spatula." She gave a sad smile. "It wouldn't exactly have been a lot of fun for me if I found out I was the one responsible for ruining his last chance at…w-well…" Her voice went a little thick— she really hadn't liked thinking about that possibility once it had occurred to her later on— and she cleared her throat, embarrassed. "Thanks anyway, huh?"

"Sure." He said, feeling a bit proud despite himself.

As they neared his house, Ryoga suddenly spotted a familiar black-and-white shape bounding towards them; Ukyo was quite surprised when Ryoga let out an abrupt, joyous shout:

"Shirokuro!"

The dog that had been running towards them leapt into Ryoga's waiting arms, and Ukyo watched in puzzlement as it licked his face affectionately.

"That's _your_ dog?" She asked, one eyebrow cocked.

"Yeah," He grinned as he tried to get rid of an armful of excited dog and all the slobber that came with it. "Down, girl!"

Ukyo jumped a little when Shirokuro unexpectedly abandoned her master and launched herself at the okonomiyaki chef. "She's really friendly, isn't she?" Ukyo couldn't help but giggle as Shirokuro jumped up and down eagerly, pawing at her legs.

"Wow, she really seems to like you," Ryoga observed, chuckling a little. "Must be because you smell like okonomiyaki."

Ukyo glared at him, but it was hard to stay mad with Shirokuro trying to lick her face. "Yeah," she laughed, "but there are worse things to smell like!"

Ryoga narrowed his eyes suspiciously at her. "Meaning…?"

"Meaning that I think you've been on the road for too long!" Ukyo stuck out her tongue at him briefly.

"Thank you for that incredibly mature display." Ryoga replied dryly. "And thank you for walking me home." He added, remembering his manners.

"You're welcome," Ukyo smiled as she turned Shirokuro over to her master again, waving at them both when she left.

Ryoga watched her walking away for a moment before smiling down at Shirokuro. It was always a relief when he made it home where he had his dog to guide him. He supposed it was a stroke of luck for him that he'd met Ukyo that afternoon so he didn't have to wait until the next time he met Ranma or something before he had someone who could show him the way home.

That was always so humiliating.

_TBC._

* * *

**Author's note: **I know I said _Zekkyo_ would be the next chapter, but I decided I wanted to touch upon a bit more than just the mandatory Ry/Uk stories. _Zekkyo_ will be coming soon; I'm almost done writing it.

One of my motivations for writing this fic is the assumption that the characters in the Ranma ½ universe actually might have had conservations sometimes that could almost be considered civilized, and I just thought it would be interesting for Ryoga and Ukyo to talk a bit outside of their adventures with Ranma/Akane.

Also, I just wanted a way for Ukyo to hear about some of the various adventures that Ryoga's had with Ranma. Ukyo's left out of the loop a lot more than Ryoga, probably because Ryoga is just such an easily applicable character— while Ukyo basically only has the childhood-friend-turned-fiancée angle to work with (unless there's a story specifically concerning okonomiyaki), Ryoga has not only his Jusenkyo curse and his crush on Akane but also his odd antagonistic/protagonistic relationship with Ranma, and therefore appears much more often. Hell, the guy's practically a plot device all in himself; his bad sense of direction gives him the ability to pop up wherever or whenever in the series without the author having to explain why! That's genius, that is.

This is my version of how Ryoga might've gotten over the whole Mark of the Gods thing. I chose that story arch because it's pretty close in time to Ukyo's Gambling King arch; they both occur in volume 13 of the English Viz version of the manga.

**Catagelophobia:** The fear of being ridiculed.

* * *


	5. FOUR: Three Legs

**Between**  
By Ninnik Nishukan

* * *

**FOUR: Three Legs**

* * *

Shakily, Ukyo got to her feet in the snow, stumbling a little as she took the first steps. Okay, that had been…weird. Why had all the water suddenly drained away, taking them with it?

She was pretty sure hot springs didn't normally do that. It had to be something that stupid committee set up.

A couple of minutes spent scoping around told her that she was alone; no Ranchan, no Ryoga, no Akane, no Mousse and not even that hussy Bubble Bath…wait, no…_Shampoo_, right? Great. Nothing but snow-covered rocks and trees. Alone in the cold in gods knew where, and of course…naked. That was probably the worst part. No, it was most _definitely_ the worst part.

Shivering and cursing and wishing she still had her battle spatula, Ukyo hurried around the next little hill to see if anyone was there and if they could lend her some clothing…

Groaning, Ryoga clutched his head as he tried to stand up. His nose and upper lip was sticky with dried blood; he washed it away with a bit of snow as he looked around with more disorientation than usual. As far as he could tell, there was nobody around, and unfortunately, he was naked and it was cold. Certain parts of him really didn't like that fact and was trying their best to cringe away from the cold temperatures.

Ryoga sneezed once and groaned again with annoyance as he hugged himself, trying to will some warmth back into his body.

Grumbling, he chose a direction at random and ended up walking in the complete opposite one, though of course he didn't even notice. In general, he hated passing out, but he particularly hated passing out from the blood loss because he saw a naked girl. _Seriously, doesn't that Shampoo have any shame_? He thought with a huff as he dabbed at his nose with the back of his hand, generally feeling sorry for himself.

This had to be one of the worst pickles he'd ever been in; at least P-chan had fur to cover himself with. He just hoped that he wouldn't bump into Akane or someone while he was naked, that would be so embarrassi—

Ryoga blinked disbelievingly at the sight in front of him. He'd just walked around a bend and there she was.

Ukyo blinked back at him, mouth agape and eyes round with shock. Her gaze slipped down, unbidden, past his stomach, to his…his— she blushed bright red as her eyes zipped back up to his face, where she noticed that his gaze was focused a little lower than her face, too, his eyes practically bugging out; squeaking, she covered her breasts with her arm—

"PERVERT!" She blurted, slapped him a few times for good measure and then dashed behind the nearest tree to hide her nakedness.

Ryoga seemed to snap back into action, then, covering his crotch with both hands as he too found cover behind a tree.

_Ukyo's naked breasts, Ukyo's naked stomach, Ukyo's naked thighs, Ukyo's naked…uh, female parts…_ His brain chanted, flinging the mental images at him, and he groaned as he tried to overcome the dizziness, blood already trickling down to his upper lip. If it hadn't been for the fact that there was barely any blood left in his nose from earlier, he knew he would've been sporting a nice little blood fountain on his face right then. "W-would you crazy girls just _stop_ jumping out naked from nowhere all the time!" He pressed out thickly, shaking his head to clear his mind. "I just passed out b-because Shampoo— and now _you_! A-a-are you trying to_ kill_ me?"

"Moron!" Ukyo yelled, trembling in the cold as she pressed herself against the tree. "You think I did this on _purpose_? I'm naked for the same reason as you! We were _all_ washed out of that damn hot spring, you know, not just you!" What did he think, that she had some kind of habit of flashing herself to innocent passers-by? Her face burned with the prickle of the cold and with the embarrassment of having her naked body exposed like that; _Ranchan_ was supposed to be the first boy who saw her naked, but now _this_ doofus had gotten a look at her goods and—

—and the only thing that had stopped her from kicking him all across the hill in outrage was the fact that she'd been momentarily distracted by him also being naked, and she supposed she really wasn't right to have called him a pervert since she'd been looking too, but it had been a reflex reaction with her; if a boy tried to look at your female parts uninvited, you hit him.

She snickered a little to herself, then, despite everything. She'd certainly found out that the myth about the effect of cold on male genitalia was true; or at least she hoped so for his sake. Other than that, though, Ryoga certainly had a muscled physique that rivalled Ranchan's. _Almost,_ she added to herself loyally.

What with him always wearing those baggy clothes, she hadn't noticed the shape of him like that before.

Ryoga flinched. Seeing the normally bouncy, flirty, mini skirt-wearing Shampoo naked was one thing; seeing the usually much less…_forward_ Ukyo naked was just…different. Apart from the obvious, it had also been a whole _other_ kind of shock to his system; knowing that the somewhat bossy and masculine, occasionally cross-dressing Ukyo was a girl was all good and well, but actually seeing it _up close_…that was a little _too_ much evidence. Also, the girl actually _telling_ him that she was naked was different than him just thinking it.

"D-don't…don't talk about our…uh, our nakedness, okay?" He groaned again, pressing a lump of nice, cold snow to his hot forehead; he blinked when it all but evaporated as it hit his skin.

"What?" Ukyo asked uncertainly.

"Just…do me a favour and…don't." He pleaded weakly. The after-image of her firm, naked form was already burned on his retina; he certainly didn't need her talking about it, too.

"Fine." Ukyo sighed. "So what are we gonna do now?"

His blush came back. "_D-do_…?"

She gave a loud, irritated scoff. "Yes! What are we gonna do for _clothes_? I'm freezing my _ass_ off here!"

"Well…I guess we could use the ones in that basket over there, right?" He asked, pointing at something a little way away.

Ukyo gaped. "_What_? Why didn't you say so sooner?"

"You _didn't _notice them?"

"Okay, whatever, just go get them!"

"What? _Me_?"

"You want _me_ to do it? _You're_ the guy!"

"What does_ that_ have to do with anything?"

Ukyo blinked; she didn't really know, either. "W-well, I dunno, I just— I don't want you looking at me again and _bleeding_ all over the place, okay?"

Ryoga coloured with shame, cringing from the memory. "I…I don't _care_! I'm not moving from behind this tree while I'm _naked_!"

Ukyo was just about to point out the fact that she'd already _seen_ him naked, but figured that the poor boy probably wouldn't be able to withstand any more embarrassment. He might faint dead away again or something, so she started searching her brain for any other solutions. "Okay…um, okay, I know, listen," She said eventually. "…you've got a bandanna, right?"

"Right…?" He asked slowly, not quite understanding what she was getting at.

"Right, so what you do is you take it off and unfold it and use it to cover your…" She paused briefly. "Um…you know…things."

Ryoga considered her suggestion; it didn't sound too bad, actually. "You know, you're kinda clever, sometimes."

Ukyo gave a dry chuckle. "Yeah, well, I figured it was a better alternative than me trying to cover up all my girly parts with this little hair ribbon…"

THUMP!

"…Ryoga?"

Feeling a bit hazy, Ryoga got slowly and unsteadily to his feet. Putting that mental image into his head had been rather unnecessary of her. "F-fine. I'm just fine…" He mumbled, pulling a couple of bandannas from his head to convert them into some sort of makeshift clothing.

When he was done, he hurried forward, blushing slightly as he tried to ignore the fact that Ukyo was looking at him.

He'd tied two bandannas around himself like a loincloth, and resembled a short-haired, Japanese Tarzan where he was bounding across the snow towards the basket of clothing. Where he'd gotten the second bandanna from to cover his backside and how he could still be wearing the one tied around his head was a mystery to her.

She quickly forgot about it when he tossed her the clothing, though, and it rattled against her hands like a pile of bicycle chains when she caught them. When she looked down, she saw that it was a yukata with chains sewn into the fabric, a lead obi and a pair of iron geta. Her eyes narrowed; the Zekkyo hot spring committee was obviously plotting to make the contestants drop out of the race.

Still, clothing was clothing, she thought as she dressed hastily, glad to get some isolation from the cold.

Now that they'd solved the whole issue of clothes, however, she suddenly remembered that she was in fact furious with him.

"You _left me behind_, you jerk!" She yelled immediately, chucking the geta at his head. It connected with a very satisfying _CLONK_. He wobbled a bit on his feet, but he didn't keel over backwards. That_ wasn't _very satisfying.

"_You're_ the one who invited _me_, you know!" She barked as she stalked towards him, shivering when her bare toes hit the snow again. "And give me back my geta!" She added reproachfully, as if it was _his_ fault she wasn't wearing it.

"Jeez, here you go," He said as he put the sandal into her demanding hand, giving her an odd look as he rubbed his sore forehead.

"That was a very rotten thing you did, ditching me to run off with Ranma!" She folded her hands over her chest, scowling at him. "And, and you left me with that…that _Shampoo_ or _Soap_ or _Laundry Detergent_ or whatever her name was!"

Ryoga blinked uncertainly at her, surprised that he was actually feeling a bit guilty— but it hadn't been _his_ fault, had it? "You only have yourself to blame, you know!" He reminded her, matching her by putting his arms defiantly across his chest. "You didn't have to pick a fight in the middle of an obstacle race!"

Ukyo bristled, indignant. "You're not one to talk about picking fights! I saw you with Mousse, you know!"

Ryoga reddened a little as he realized she was right. "Listen," he said quickly, "we don't have time for this! Let's just rejoin the race, okay?"

"Fine." She sighed. He did have a point; they needed to hurry up.

"Right, then," he nodded, crouching down next to her legs, starting to hike the hem of her yukata up—

"Oowww!" He yelped when Ukyo suddenly grabbed a fistful of his bangs, pulling him up to eye level.

"What the _hell_…?" She snarled into his face, her gaze furious.

"I was trying to tie our legs back together, moron!" He snarled back. "What did _you_ think…?"

She noticed then that he was holding in his fist the same kind of small, white towel they'd received before the contest and had used to tied their legs together earlier in the race; he must've found it in the basket with the yukata and things. The flush was pink and spread along her hairline and cheeks; letting go of his hair, she cleared her throat. "Right…"

Ryoga let out an offended huff as he smoothed down his bangs. "Now, should I try this again or am I gonna risk ending up bald?" He asked sarcastically.

Ukyo sent him a scowl. "Don't be cute, Hibiki."

Ryoga only rolled his eyes and sighed as he bent back down. "You've noticed the clothes, right?" He said as he finished tied their legs together, "It really looks like that committee doesn't actually want anyone to win, doesn't it?"

Ukyo arched an eyebrow; would you look at that! Maybe Ryoga could be clever sometimes, too. "What_ I_ think is that they're underestimating us."

"Me too." Ryoga was grinning with determination as he stood up again. "Let's go win this thing, okay?"

"Okay!" Ukyo grinned back, getting caught up in Ryoga's rare display of optimism and confidence. Besides, a free vacation really did sound kind of tempting.

"I can't wait to see the look on Ranma's face when we win," Ryoga said as they broke into a run.

* * *

About twenty minutes later, Ukyo realized with dismay that she was letting the Lost Boy lead her around. By that time, though, he had gotten them so good and lost in some sort of gigantic bathhouse that even she had no idea where they were.

She tried to concentrate on where they were going, but he was pulling her along, moving so fast and with such determination because he was so eager to win, so it was easy to just get swept along, and besides, there was something almost_ bizarre_ in the way he got lost that made her unable to get them to go in the right direction again.

They would be running down some hallway and suddenly they would find themselves, inexplicably, in the _attic_ or _under the house_ or even in some sort of _storage closet_, for goodness' sake! How was it even _possible_?

He was just _so_ incredibly directionally challenged!

Then again…sure, she had no idea where they were, but it wasn't really that all-important for her to win the race in any case, and at least they were out of the cold and they hadn't come across any traps or any other unpleasant things yet; she had to wonder how the _others_ were fairing, though.

And whether that other girl who'd claimed to be his fiancée was staying away from Ranma…

Later, when they actually ended up winning the race, Ryoga was as shocked as Ukyo, and no wonder, either. They'd bumbled their way outside again somehow, and when they burst out of a snow drift, suddenly there it was…the goal. And there, a few feet in front of them, was Ranma and Akane, looking like they'd just seen a space ship landing, their eyes wide and disbelieving.

It took a few seconds for the reality of it all to sink in, but when it did, Ryoga's face split into a big, triumphant grin. It was the first time he'd ever won a competition with Ranma where it was a definite victory and Ranma couldn't ask for a rematch and make his original victory null and void. He had _won_.

And even better, Akane was there to see it! He was already looking forward to his return from Jusenkyo, when he would come home to Nerima a changed man, no more P-chan, no more curse, no more—

Laughing, he turned to Ukyo with bright, joyful eyes, catching her baffled but excited smile; caught up in the moment, he picked Ukyo up to swing her around in celebration—

—but forgot that their legs were still tied together, and the joyous moment ended instead as an ungraceful, tangled mess of limbs, Ukyo cursing loudly. Even so, nothing could ruin the mood for Ryoga; he simply untied their legs and helped the still cursing Ukyo to her feet. He didn't even mind when she swatted him across the head for 'being a jackass', because he had _won_ and he was going to _Jusenkyo_!

He simply couldn't stop laughing.

Of course, Ranma wearing the same expression that _he_ usually wore after losing a fight didn't make it any less funny. To think his bad sense of direction had actually _got_ him somewhere for once!

* * *

"First thing when we come back to Nerima," Ryoga told Ukyo later, when they were pushing her okonomiyaki cart along, "I'm challenging Ranma to a game of cards!"

Ukyo had to laugh. "I'm all for you dating Akane, but don't you think winning her in a card game is a little seedy?"

The comment was unexpected and made him flush with its implications. "Th-that's not it at all! I just wanna beat Ranma! Akane isn't the _only_ reason we fight," He added in a mumble. "He's _always _been my rival…"

Ukyo looked sidelong at him walking on the other side of the cart handle. "What other reasons?"

Once again he was caught by surprise as he hadn't expected a follow-up question. "Um, I…" He hesitated, frantically searching his brain for a reason to replace the Jusenkyo curse part of his lust for victory over Ranma, "B-because…because of…uh…bread." He finally came up with; that part at least was true.

She sent him a bewildered look. "_Bread_?"

He drew a deep breath, getting ready to tell a long story. "Well…"

_TBC._

* * *

**Author's note:** How in the _world_ did Ryoga and Ukyo suddenly get dressed and get teamed up again during the obstacle race after everybody was washed away from the hot spring and ended up naked somewhere?

Well, this chapter was one possible scenario…

It wasn't supposed to be a lame attempt at that good ol' fanfic cliché, romance-though-accidental-nakedness, I just wrote it because I really _do_ wonder what happened.

There is no romance yet.

**Yukata:** A light, cotton kimono; a layered robe. It has many uses: Bathrobe, summer daily wear, simple night attire, etc...

**Obi:** Broad sash that you tie either the yukata or the kimono with; the style of tying the obi differs according to which of the two you wear.

**Geta:** Thick, wooden sandals worn with yukata or kimono.

Yep, I just copied the word explanations from _Omiyage._

Next up is chapter four, _Atami_: And _another_ thing! What _were_ Ryoga and Ukyo doing at Atami? I mean, the Lost Boy and the cross-dressing okonomiyaki chef spending, what, one or two weeks together on vacation (that's the usual amount of vacation time, right?) and we _didn't_ get to see what _happened_?

It _could_ have been Takahashi comedy gold.

You owe us some answers, Takahashi-sama. Too bad the series has ended.

So I'll just have to make something up. Ninnik Nishukan comedy bronze or most likely Ninnik Nishukan comedy aluminium foil.

* * *


	6. FIVE: Atami

**Between**  
By Ninnik Nishukan

* * *

**FIVE: Atami**

* * *

Her enthusiasm seemed to come from nowhere and in endless supplies.

They'd spent the first day at Atami on the beach, since she'd insisted on setting up her okonomiyaki cart there, and she'd cheerfully flipped okonomiyakis all day long, turning a rather nice profit.

He, on the other hand, had been spending all day sitting on his backpack on the beach, lost in his own despair as he thought of how stupid he'd been to not just ask Ukyo to lead him to China and Jusenkyo instead of simply going off in some random direction. Apparently, the completely unfamiliar rush that victory had brought him had overwhelmed him, and he'd just run along without even thinking about where he was going, lost in his various daydreams about Jusenkyo, drunk on overconfidence. Then again, getting Ukyo to lead him to Jusenkyo would've required an explanation as to why he wanted to go there, and he wasn't sure if he was prepared to give one.

Maybe if he'd stayed teamed up with Ranma, they could've made it there together…but the perpetually unfortunate Lost Boy teaming up with the aqua-transsexual, pigtailed Trouble Magnet didn't really sound like the best of ideas. Things almost never worked out between them, whether they were cooperating or not.

They both had such bad luck that by rights, there should've been some sort of disturbance in the cosmic balance or the fabric of reality or something whenever the two of them came together, Ryoga felt. The difference between them was that Ranma somehow managed to keep confident and up-beat, while he didn't.

And talking about good moods…

Ukyo, who was in an _unstoppably_ good mood, kept nagging at him to cheer up so he wouldn't scare away her customers. He was quite relieved when evening came and she decided it was time to return to the hotel to have dinner.

She seemed almost as excited when she saw their Western style hotel room the second time as she did the first. Unlike him, she hadn't been fazed in the least by the fact that they could only claim one room with their ticket, meaning they would have to share.

"It's so gorgeous! And look at the view at night, just look! Oooh, the mini bar! Let's get something from the mini bar, whaddaya say?"

"Ukyo, I really don't think— hey, stop it, do you know much that kinda stuff _costs_?" He objected when she carelessly pulled out two small cans of beer, two packets of peanuts and a small bottle of Suntory whiskey from the mini bar.

"It's _free_, Mr. Grumpy!" She stuck out her tongue at him playfully. "The Zekkyo hot spring committee are paying for everything, remember?" This was great, Ukyo thought, not only was this vacation_ free_, but she'd even _made_ money, too. Business was a little slow sometimes at home, but here the tourists had been flocking to her; maybe she should take her okonomiyaki cart out on the road more often?

"B-but," he stuttered, "We're too young to be drinking!"

Ukyo waved away his objections; she wasn't about to let him ruin her fun. "Oh, please! It's not as if we're gonna get drunk! There's not enough in this measly little mini bar for that, anyway."

When he still looked mopey and sceptical, she threw him a beer and a packet of peanuts, which he caught deftly. "It's a vacation," she said in a happy tone of voice. "Why don't we just enjoy it, huh?"

Deflating with defeat, he reluctantly sat down on his bed, opening the packet of peanuts.

Ukyo plopped down on the opposite bed, giggling as the mattress bounced. He'd done nothing but sulk since they got there, but if _she_ had anything to say, he would have a nice time even if it killed him; and Hibiki Ryoga being cheerful probably _would_ kill him, she snickered to herself, as the shock from such an unexpected sensation would be too much for the moody boy. "Have you ever even stayed at a hotel, Hibiki?"

He shrugged. "I've stayed at hostels, I guess…"

"Hostels, schmostels!" She laughed. "_This_ is _living_! And it's _free_!" It was such a nice hotel, and Atami was so beautiful; the view they had of the beach was enough to make anybody feel better— except, apparently, _this_ jackass. She didn't know what his problem was, but she wasn't about to let him get her down.

"That must be the only good thing about it, anyway…" He grumbled, thinking again about how he'd much rather have been on his way to Jusenkyo right then.

Ukyo sighed heavily; if Ranchan had been there, he would've probably be just as enthusiastic as her about having the opportunity to just slack off for free at such a nice place. "Jeez! Don't be so negative! I mean, have you even seen the ofuro? It's large and squeaky clean and the bathroom's so nice! I'm gonna take a big bath later, you bet on it!"

"I guess…"

"So," she said, picking up the phone to call room service, "what do you want for dinner?"

* * *

"Ryoga?" She said as they waited for their dinner to arrive, idly channel surfing as she lay on her stomach on the bed, occasionally eating a peanut or taking a sip of her small beer.

"Yeah?" He mumbled, his voice a bit muffled; he hadn't been interested in the television at all, so he'd started reading the newspaper instead, but ended up dozing off underneath it.

She put her beer down, glancing over at him. "Why'd you invite me to the race in the first place?" She hadn't thought much about it when he'd invited her, only focused on the possibility of making money selling okonomiyaki to tourists at Zekkyo and excited about going on the road again, but on their way to Atami, she'd started wondering about what his motivation for the invitation had been, and now she finally remembered to ask.

He lifted the newspaper slightly and peered at her from under it. "Why did you accept the invitation?" He asked back.

"You first."

"No, you."

"You."

"No, you."

Ukyo threw her arms up in irritated surrender. "You— oh, jeez, whatever, this is stupid! I came because I thought I could turn a profit from all the people gathering at Zekkyo. And I kinda really needed to get away for a while, I guess."

"Um…okay." Ryoga started, feeling oddly relieved; at least her motives hadn't been any better than his. "In that case, I…I have to admit I kinda asked you by accident."

"What?"

"I was practising how to invite Akane when you were…well, suddenly you were there when I was doing the whole practice thing." He admitted, fidgeting a little; it was kind of a silly thing to have done.

Ukyo looked at him in slight incredulity. "Wow…when you're absentminded you're _really_ absentminded, aren't you?"

"Don't start…" He grumbled, lowering the newspaper over his face again.

There was a beat.

"So…you didn't actually want me to go to Zekkyo with you, then?" She knew it was silly of her, but she felt for a second as if she should be hurt; was there a guy out there who _wouldn't _choose Akane over her? Did such a thing even exist?

He glanced over at her, trying to read her face, but she was giving out no opinion one way or the other. Was she offended or was she just making conversation?

"I'm sure you would've rather been in that competition as Ranma's partner instead." He ventured, putting the newspaper aside and sitting up.

She grinned sheepishly. "Got me there."

He knew he shouldn't be, but he could feel just the slightest sting of rejection; was there a girl out there who _wouldn't_ choose Ranma over him? Did such a thing even exist? "Thought so," Ryoga nodded, shooting a short, feeble grin her way.

Rolling back over on her stomach on the bed, Ukyo propped herself up on her elbows, looking over at him. "But to be honest, I don't think I would've won the competition if I was Ranma's partner."

His hand halted on its way to retrieving the newspaper. "What?" That didn't make any sense; Ranma had been the fastest of all the people in that race, and even Ryoga had to admit that Ranma had an enviable ability to adapt to any kind of environment.

"Think about it." She shrugged. "Ranma had Mousse, Shampoo and probably Akane out to get him. And me and you, I guess." She added, chuckling a little before she put her chin in her hand, sending him an amused look. "_We_ had no one after us, so we were well out of it, weren't we?"

He blinked; he _hadn't_ considered that. "I guess you're right."

"And you know that if I went on a hot spring vacation with Ranchan, Akane and Shampoo and maybe Mr. Saotome and Mr. Tendo would follow us and Mousse would follow Shampoo and then there would be mayhem." She sighed heavily; it wasn't the happiest thought, but if she was honest with herself, she knew it was true. It wouldn't be as bad to just ruin an ordinary day with a failed attempt at wooing Ranchan as it would be to ruin an entire vacation. "It wouldn't be a vacation at all…and I kinda really wanted one right about now."

"The same thing would've happened if I went here with Akane," Ryoga admitted reluctantly. "Ranma and maybe Kuno and definitely Mr. Tendo and Mr. Saotome would be just, you know, _accidentally dropping_ _in_ or something…"

Ukyo smiled lazily. "It's okay to leave that whole mess alone for a while, isn't it?"

"It really kind of is." Sighing, Ryoga folded his arms under his head, gazing up into the ceiling. Even if going here with Akane might've given him the perfect chance to finally admit his feelings to her, it would've been nerve-wrecking and nothing like a relaxing vacation; and of course there was always the scary possibility of rejection.

Also, he hadn't minded Akane not coming along because he'd originally intended to go to Jusenkyo to cure his curse, something that Akane _definitely_ shouldn't be a witness to— but Ukyo hadn't known that, and he sure wasn't going to tell her now.

Ukyo stretched a little, yawning. "And out of all the people I know in Nerima, I kinda feel like you're the only one I can just hang around with and not really have to worry about anything except your sense of direction," She chuckled. "I mean, Akane for example…I like her, but she's my rival, you know?"

Ryoga continued to stare up at the whiteness of the ceiling. "Sometimes I start to wonder what life would've been like if I hadn't had that grudge against Ranma…" He mumbled absently.

"Me too…" Ukyo said almost inaudibly. He glanced worriedly over at her, but decided not to comment.

"So maybe that's also a reason why I said yes…" Ukyo spoke up, louder this time. "Because I figured it might be nice to go somewhere with…well, a friend of sorts, no pressure and all." She glanced at him. "Why didn't you try to explain to me that you hadn't intended to go with me?"

Ryoga sat up a little. "Well…Akane had already asked Mousse to go and I guess I thought…I thought it would be nice to go on a trip and not be alone for once."

She smiled. "And so far so good, right?"

He considered it. "Yeah, you know…this actually isn't too bad," he said, getting comfortable on the bed again. "I'm kinda glad I came." _It's nice to able to relax. And besides_…_if I'd even managed to find Jusenkyo, _he thought bitterly to himself,_ with my sense of direction I would've probably jumped in the wrong spring…!_

Ukyo was getting quite pleased that the big oaf was finally starting to lighten up. "And we really did kick ass," She grinned shamelessly, jokingly flexing her muscles like a bodybuilder.

"Yeah…we did." He smiled somewhat wistfully. "I've never won over Ranma before, not really."

"Exactly! So let's celebrate!"

That seemed to be the cue for their dinner to arrive as there was a knock on the door.

* * *

Kuonji Ukyo seriously couldn't hold her liquor.

After only two small cans of beer and about halfway down her first glass of Suntory whiskey, her cheeks and forehead were flushed with interesting deep pink and red hues.

"You look like an overcooked lobster," He chuckled, and got a pink, curly straw flung at him for his trouble, which she'd somehow managed to obtain from room service. This wouldn't have been a problem if it wasn't for the fact that it was covered in her drink and still had a mouthful of alcohol inside the straw, which now trickled down his forehead.

"And you look like a very _cheap_ drink," She giggled, the ice cubes in her glass rattling.

"Very funny," he complained as he went about cleaning his face with some moist towelettes from the nightstand.

"Just kidding," Ukyo amended jovially. "You look cute!"

He froze. "Wh-what?"

"Sure," She shrugged carelessly. "You're a good-looking guy, didn't you know?"

"No," he told her honestly, his eyes big with perplexity. Nobody had ever called him cute or good-looking before.

"Must be all that time spent wandering around nowhere without a mirror," She chuckled. "You're cute, but you could learn a thing or two about hair care and personal hygiene…and you don't have much of a dress sense, either…"

His eyes narrowed; so she was still just making fun of him, huh? And who was _she_ to talk about dress sense? She wore a uniform for boys to school, for goodness' sake, and her idea of casual wear seemed to be an okonomiyaki uniform! "Are you _drunk_?" He demanded indignantly.

"Pfft! Nah," She said dismissively, "I'm just saying I've got _eyes_, you know? I'm engaged, but I'm not _dead_, am I?"

"Y-you mean…?" She'd actually been _serious _after all?

"Ryoga," she began generously, "Do you really think I'd bother trying to hook you up with Akane if I didn't think you stood a chance with her?" Ukyo put down her drink, scooting closer to the edge of the bed so she could put her feet on the floor and face him. "She's a very pretty girl, isn't she? If I didn't think you were at least cute enough for her, why would I be wasting any time on trying to get you to date her?"

Ryoga's eyes went bright and shiny with emotion, and he leaned forward, clasping her hands in his. "You really do believe in me? You think I can do it?"

"Relax, sweetie." Ukyo laughed, patting his hand. "We'll win them over, huh?"

"Thank you, Ukyo!" Ryoga told her whole-heartedly, and she had to smile. He looked so cute and innocent like that, like he really believed in their common dream. Cute enough to eat.

Blushing suddenly, she slipped her hands out of his. Her heart was always with Ranchan, but _really_…she _wasn't _dead, either. She was only sixteen, and wasn't used to cute guys looking intently into her eyes while holding her hands like that…and especially not when they were alone together in a hotel room.

It wasn't that she thought the boy was hot or anything— he had the body for it, sure, but his pathetic social skills, weird behaviour and depressive moods weren't exactly attractive— but he'd just looked so painfully sweet for a moment, nothing like his grumpy old self, and he'd been so close she got a good look at the strangely fascinating fang-like teeth he had, making him look kind of like a vampire, but much, much less scary; vampires didn't have tans or heartbeats and didn't usually radiate tearful hope.

Ryoga, slightly dense though he occasionally was, also seemed to have noticed the change in temperature, and cleared his throat awkwardly, picking up the remote control and turning on the TV simply to break the silence. It had been a very strange feeling to be told that he was attractive and that someone believed he had a chance with Akane— something he often lost faith in himself— and he supposed he'd become a bit overemotional.

It was especially unsettling to be called good-looking by a girl who was quite…good-looking herself— her pretty face, long, dark hair and curvy figure _were_ kind of easy on the eyes, he had to admit— and while they were alone in a hotel room, too!

Akane rarely left his thoughts, always simmering below the surface of his mind somewhere, but it was a simple fact that Ukyo was at least as pretty as Akane, and that she'd been unusually nice to him so far during their vacation. It was very odd to see Ukyo in another kind of setting than he was used to, outside of Nerima and not plotting to break Ranma and Akane up; he'd seen glimpses of it before, but he only ever met her for a very short period at a time. She just seemed so…relaxed.

"I think I'll go to bed now," Ukyo said quietly, pointing at the alarm clock on her nightstand. "It's getting kind of late."

"Yeah," he agreed as he found himself actually yawning, and quickly turned off the TV again. "Might as well."

It was odd having to share a room with Ukyo, he thought, but at least they had separate beds. He could _just imagine_ Ukyo forcing him to sleep on the floor if there had only been one bed, even if it had been king-sized.

Akane would never do anything like that to him.

Well…when he was P-chan, anyway, he added gloomily to himself.

* * *

Waking up was not pleasant. Her mouth tasted like a dead hedgehog. Sitting up, Ukyo glanced over at her companion; he was awake, but still lying down for some reason.

"You snore like an asthmatic gorilla with a clogged nostril, did you know that?" She complained, throwing her pillow at him, then instantly regretting it as she had nothing to rest her head on anymore. Grumbling, she got up from bed to retrieve it.

"I'm sick," Ryoga moaned thickly as she removed the pillow from his head. He hadn't even noticed it landing.

Ukyo made a slightly disgusted face. "If you're gonna throw up, do it in the bathroom, okay?"

"No, I mean I'm actually _sick_. I think I've got a cold." He insisted, sniffling.

Ukyo shook her head at him. "Well, that would explain the snoring, anyway…"

"Oh, my _head_…"Ryoga whimpered, and he looked so pitiful with his runny, red nose, tired eyes and tangled hair that she had to grin. He was like a little puppy right then, completely different from his normal self; the moody slab of muscle she occasionally had shouting matches with.

Going over to him, she placed her left hand to his forehead, then her right hand to her own, ignoring the way he blinked up at her uncertainly, blushing badly at the contact and trying to sit up in protest. "Yep," she announced, "You've got a fever."

"Oh, great…" He groaned, slumping back into the pillows. First he couldn't find his way to Jusenkyo and then he even got _sick_? "Just my luck, right?"

"Wait a sec," She said warmly, feeling a little sorry for him. "I'll get you some tea, all right?"

"_R-really_? Oh, thank you, Ukyo!" He looked so touched and surprised she swore she could actually see tears forming in his eyes. Apparently he wasn't used to being cared for at all.

"It's only tea," she mumbled as she went over to the water heater. After the tea was done, she handed him the cup, and he sat back up against the headrest, taking several grateful gulps from the hot liquid and coughing a bit before he placed the empty cup on his nightstand. Pulling out a bandanna from the one on his head, he blew his nose loudly.

"How do you do that thing with your bandanna, anyway?" Ukyo asked, putting her head on one side as she looked at his bandanna curiously. "You know, where there's suddenly more than one?"

He gave her a blank look before he shrugged. "Magic?"

She gaped. "You mean you _don't know_?"

Shrugging again, he fell back into the pillows. "All I know is that I bought it off some old woman in some kind of mountain village."

"What else?" Ukyo snorted. "So, do you even know what country this was in?"

"Funny."

* * *

When Ukyo went to the bathroom and got dressed, she began to feel a bit funny as she was brushing her teeth, her nose and throat beginning to itch in a way that was hard to ignore.  
Then came the shivers, as she began to feel cold even if she was fully dressed and there was heating on in the bathroom.

She drew in a sharp breath when she could feel a familiar sensation coming on, incidentally making her choke on the toothpaste lather. Hacking and coughing, her toothbrush shot out of her mouth and ricocheted off of the mirror, zinging past her ear.

When she looked up, she saw that the mirror was covered in a blob of spit and toothpaste. Her nose and throat began to itch again…

"Ah…ah…ATCHOOO!"

Ryoga woke up abruptly from his nap when he heard Ukyo give off a whole series of uncontrolled sneezes, echoing among the bathroom walls so it sounded even worse than it was.

"Shit…" Ukyo muttered, sending him a helpless yet pissed-off look when she emerged from the bathroom and leaned heavily against the door frame, her nose running and her eyes puffy. "Looks like I'm not going to be able to play nurse with you," she informed him sarcastically.

He blushed a bit at her somewhat risqué joke; or it could have just been the fever making his face red, who knew?

"Give me a bandanna," she demanded, and he was too exhausted to argue. She blew her nose noisily, not caring about what it looked or sounded like. "I'm going back to bed," she groaned miserably, shuffling into the bathroom to change back into her pyjamas, practically collapsing into bed when she returned.

"Well…" He began conversationally, feeling slightly uncomfortable in the…um…uncomfortable silence. "It looks like getting drenched in cold water, then sitting in a hot spring and then running around naked in the cold and snow wasn't exactly good for our health, huh?"

"What we need are some cold remedies," She declared, sounding determined despite the fact that it was as if her voice was being filtered through mucus. "I am not going to throw away my only vacation in a long while just because I've got some stupid cold!"

He nodded; he supposed they should at least try to fight this thing. "Got any good cures?" He asked, sitting up against the headrest of his bed.

She thought for a second. "Garlic?"

"Yeah, and rice porridge with spring leeks." He suggested.

"That's not really a remedy. It's more like sick food."

"Okay, what about mixing up all different kinds of juice?"

"Well, it's okay for the vitamins and all, but I think that's actually a remedy for constipation."

"Oh. Okay, hmm…oh, I know!" He exclaimed.

"What?"

"Hot water, freshly grated ginger and honey." He told her triumphantly, as if he was sharing some ancient, legendary cold remedy.

She considered it. "That sounds pretty good, actually. I think maybe my grandma gave me that once when I was little."

He nodded proudly. "Yeah, and it works, too!"

She gave a crooked smirk. "Let me guess…you got the recipe from some old woman in some kind of mountain village?"

"Let's just call room service and see what they have," He said, pointedly ignoring her comment.

* * *

It was another couple of days out of their vacation before they got well again, and they spent the time lounging around their hotel room in their pyjamas and their hotel robes, playing cards and watching TV, sleeping and eating room service food, the latter done in abundance and with a kind of malignant glee because they knew the Zekkyo hot spring committee would be getting the bill.

There was also idle talk of suing the committee for making them sick.

Other than that, they occasionally sat out on the balcony and watched the beach, but mostly they felt crappy enough to have to stay in bed and sleep a lot.

Enough liberally applied ginger and honey, garlic, hot green tea and bed rest saw them back on their feet quickly enough, though, and by the morning of their fourth day there, Ukyo was up and about, excitedly talking about all the things she wanted to do, Ryoga tagging along.

They were both a little restless after two days and a night in a hotel room, so they decided to go for a walk on the beach.

Ukyo snickered a bit at Ryoga bringing his huge backpack for just a walk on the beach, but he didn't seem to find it quite as amusing.

"It's a really a pity it's too cold to go swimming, isn't it?" Ukyo sighed, pulling her scarf tighter around her neck; she really wasn't going to take any risks when she was just recovering from a cold.

"Yeah, pity," Ryoga muttered darkly, shuddering at the thought of poor little P-chan drifting out to sea somewhere.

"But at least we can finally use the hot springs, though, right?" She remembered, brightening.

Ryoga sucked in a startled breath. "_We_? Y-you don't mean…?"

She glanced at him. "Mixed baths?"

Reddening severely, he nodded slowly, his eyes wide with shock.

"Well, sure," She said exasperatedly, putting her hands on her hips. "You don't expect me to let you wander off alone to the males only bath so you'll end up in Sapporo and leave me to spend the rest of my vacation here alone like some kind of loser, do you?"

"B-b-but…! Y-you, I…I…w-we…!"

"Oh, for goodness sake! I asked the hotel staff and they told me about this little hot spring in the area. The women's and men's changing and washing areas are separate, and we'd be wearing towels, so you wouldn't see anything to make ninety per cent of all your blood drain out through your nose, okay? Besides," she added, peering critically at him. "You really need to get over this whole problem you've got with female nudity— and girls in general, too, you know! How do you expect yourself to be able to act like a man around Akane when you're so shy and easily intimidated?"

Ryoga bristled. Calling his manhood into question was _not_ cool _at all._ "O-okay, okay, I'll go!" He snapped, still not quite managing to get rid of the nervous stutter born from the shock of possibly sharing a bath with a naked Ukyo.

"Besides," Ukyo went on, grinning evilly, "I've already seen you naked, haven't I?"

She could hear Ryoga spluttering behind her as she continued on her way down the beach.

Ryoga growled, then, taking after her at a run once he'd recomposed himself. "You didn't seem to think it was as funny when I saw _you_ naked!" He blurted, blushing just a little; he really wasn't used to talking about things like that.

Ukyo rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'll never bring it up ever, ever again. How's that?"

"Fine," Ryoga echoed, still a bit peeved, but he smiled somewhat smugly when he caught sight of her reddening cheeks. She wasn't as blasé about everything as she pretended to be, was she?

* * *

"Okay, remember what I said now?" Ukyo said sternly when they were standing in the hallway outside the dressing rooms of the hot spring.

"Don't get lost," Ryoga droned, as if it was a rehearsed line he'd had to listen to too many times. "Just follow after the other guys when you're done."

Ukyo gave him a suspicious look, but nodded contentedly. "Good."

Ryoga sighed and turned to go into the men's dressing room, dragging his feet, his body jittery with nerves. Was he really going to share a bath with naked women just because Ukyo had bullied him into it? Why did she have to be so bossy? And why was he stupid enough to listen to her?

He supposed it was because it was hard to say no to her when she'd been so set on having a good time and so excited about going to the hot springs.

And of course, there was his pride to consider, too.

Ukyo watched him as he walked away and felt slightly bad; she knew how awkward he was about these kinds of things, and it was probably taking him a lot of effort to be able to pluck up the courage and prepare the self-control he would need for going to a mixed bath. She supposed she shouldn't have made him come with her, but she wasn't going to stay at Atami and not even visit the hot springs once, and she wasn't prepared to spend the rest of her vacation alone, either. Besides, he really _did_ need to get over himself when it came to his issues about these sorts of things, but still…there had to be _something_ she could do for him—

"Ryoga?"

"What?" He said gloomily, turning back to her.

To his great surprise, Ukyo sent him a warm, reassuring smile, patting his shoulder in a friendly manner. "It's gonna be okay, Ryoga." She said soothingly. "We're just here for a relaxing vacation, right? Let's not ruin it."

"O-okay," he stammered, nodding vigorously at her until she smiled again, looking pleased.

"Great!" She said cheerfully. "See you inside!"

"Yeah…" Ryoga gave a long-suffering sigh again, wondering why Life always forced him into situations involving massive amounts of hot and cold water.

* * *

Preoccupied with the fact that he'd had his curse triggered by some old geezer splashing around with cold water, and had to do some silly jumping up and down to reach the faucet to get some hot water, Ryoga was grumbling as he followed the same old man— who'd fortunately been the only other one in the dressing room at the time, and who'd had his back turned, not even noticing the young man suddenly turning into a piglet— into the bath, and almost forgot—

He stiffened in shock as the old man stepped out of his line of sight and he got the full panorama view of the bath house. Luckily, there wasn't that many people there, and most of the people were old or middle-aged men and a few old grandmothers, but in the corner there were three young women, a bit older than him, who apparently weren't much concerned with nudity, and they were giggling as they looked at him where he stood, nervous and forlorn in the middle of the floor, quickly becoming the centre of attention.

_Where the hell is Ukyo_, he thought desperately, quickly tearing his gaze away from the women, willing himself not to get dizzy and start bleeding.

After another minute went by, he was beginning to get frantic, keeping his eyes trained to the floor tiles, his shoulders trembling with embarrassment. Where _was_ she?

"Ryoga!"

His nerves bled out of him when he heard her voice, relief filling up his heart. Opening his mouth to greet her as he looked up, he quickly froze up again as he caught sight of Ukyo.

It wasn't as if he could actually_ see_ anything, but the slightly wet towel clung to her luscious curves like a sinfully tight terrycloth mini dress, and he found himself gulping loudly.

"What's wrong?" She said curiously as she approached him, brushing her damp bangs out of her face. She had tied her hair up with a red ribbon, and he found himself staring fixedly at a few droplets of water running down her neck. It was better to look there than to look lower, in any case.

"Guh…!" He said intelligently.

"_What_?" She put her head on one side, blinking at him.

"Muh…ffhh…!" He sputtered, and she groaned when she got the problem, rolling her eyes. "Relax," She sighed, pulling him by his arm to the nearest hot spring. "Come on," She said impatiently as she carefully slipped into the piping hot water, letting out a small squeak as her body tried to adjust to the massive change in temperature, but then sighing in contentment.

"The water's _great_," She murmured, tugging a little at his leg. "Come on in, Hibiki."

Feeling a bit weak, he relented as he too slipped slowly into the hot spring, rolling his shoulders as his tense muscles started relaxing with the hot water.

"There," Ukyo smiled triumphantly. "Doesn't that feel nice?"

"Mmhmm…" He mumbled, his eyes falling shut. At least enjoying a hot bath was a good pretence for keeping his eyes closed so he couldn't see anything he shouldn't.

Since there weren't that many people around, they had the hot spring to themselves, and they sat like that for a few moments in peaceful, relaxed silence before his eyes opened hazily and he glanced over at her, but found his gaze landing by accident on her wet, softly heaving bosom, a nice portion of cleavage visible above the white wraparound towel.

To his great shock, however, his treacherous body didn't made him bleed nasally, but rather, the blood wormed its way down into his crotch, awakening something he really didn't need any attention drawn to while he was sitting in a hot spring right next to a girl.

He made a strangled, panicked sound in the back of his throat as his hands darted down to cover his crotch.

The display was something Ukyo couldn't fail to notice, and she didn't, either, her gaze turning confused as she looked at his bowed head and hunched-up shoulders, and his face, which was so intensely red it couldn't be just from the hot water. Then her gaze travelled lower, down his arms and to his hands, which were cupped over his crotch, and then comprehension dawned, accompanied by shocked silence.

"The thing is…" Ukyo began after a moment, her voice quiet but strained. "I kinda doubt that the reason that's happened is because of the old grandmothers over there."

Ryoga looked behind him slowly; the three young women were gone now, so he couldn't even blame this on them. He was beginning to panic. "Uh…"

Ukyo looked at him uncomfortably, embarrassed on both their behalves and waiting for him to talk.

"L-look, Ukyo," Ryoga soldiered on, desperate to avoid a violent ending to this whole thing. "I…it's n-nothing personal, okay? I l-love Akane, you know that, it's just th-that I'm…w-well, I'm just a sixteen year old guy and you're…uh, you're only wearing—and we're in a h-hot spring together…"

Ukyo sighed, deflating a little with relief; for a short moment, she'd been worried he had a thing for her or something, which would've made the rest of their stay at Atami quite awkward. "It's okay, Ryoga." She said. "I guess I shouldn't have brought you here, huh?"

"N-no, that's okay," Ryoga said quickly, holding his hands up in a placating manner. "I…it's not so bad, I had a nice time, and uh—"He halted abruptly when he noticed Ukyo's gaze dropping to the bulge under the towel. Yelping, he plunged his hands into the water again to cover himself, sending her a scandalized, bug-eyed look.

"It's nothing personal, Ryoga," Ukyo smirked crookedly, amused. "I'm just a sixteen year old girl, so what do you expect?"

As he whimpered with embarrassment and looked away, she chuckled a little to herself. She'd certainly found out that the naked Ryoga she'd seen out in the cold that day had been a severe misrepresentation of what he in his full…uh, glory…looked like, she thought somewhat naughtily. If it hadn't been for the fact that Akane would only get deathly embarrassed or probably confused as to why she was even telling her that, Ukyo might've tried using her newfound discovery about Ryoga as a selling point to Akane when trying to convince her why she should break up with Ranma and date Ryoga instead.

_Not that I have any idea,_ she admitted to herself; for all she knew, her Ranchan could be much, much more…uh, well-equipped…than Ryoga. That interesting thought popping into her head, she unwittingly lost herself in a daydream involving her, Ranma and an old pair of pants whose drawstring accidentally gave out at _just_ the right moment, when she had him to herself at the restaurant after hours…

"Ukyo?"

The voice seemed so far away, and she groaned in protest; she wanted to dream some more.

"U-Ukyo?"

"What?" She snapped in annoyance, her eyes finally opening. She was startled to see that Ryoga was holding a hand under her neck, her chin barely above the water line; she quickly sat up again.

"You, uh…you seemed kind of like you were in a different dimension there for a while," He said worriedly. "I had to stop you from falling under."

Ukyo blushed. "Just daydreaming," she muttered evasively.

After a few moments of silence, when she'd collected herself, she looked over at him again. "I don't mean to embarrass you, but I was thinking…"

Ryoga returned her look apprehensively. That lead-in didn't bode well.

"Well, about your, you know…" She cleared her throat, indicating his crotch with a nod of her head. "If it makes you feel any better, you could actually call it progress."

"Pr-progress…?" He asked uncertainly, completely puzzled.

Ukyo shrugged. "Yeah, I mean…you've gone from fainting in a spray of blood to…well, that." She tilted her head at him. "I'd at least call that a more _normal _reaction, wouldn't you?"

"R-really?" Ryoga's eyes widened. Even if it was still an embarrassing reaction, she was kind of right, wasn't she?

Ukyo nodded, actually smiling a little. "Yeah. Maybe you still have hopes of relating to Akane in a normal way, huh?"

Ryoga's eyes glazed as he went into a hopeful fantasy. If he could stop bleeding and fainting when he saw a bit of cleavage, he could probably be able to overcome his crippling shyness when talking to Akane as well, right? He sighed as he began to picture them at a café, where he was impressing her with his witty conversational skills…she would giggle and look at him adoringly, telling him how cool she thought he was—

One thing bothered him a little, though. "Um…Ukyo?"

"Yeah?"

_How to say this delicately? _"I was just wondering…well, I was kind of expecting you to clobber me when you saw me like this…"

Ukyo shrugged. "Yeah, maybe, but it's not really your fault, is it? And besides," she grinned toothily, looking just a bit intimidating. "This is a public place and I don't want to disturb the other guests…"

Ryoga sidled a bit away from her. "Uh…"

Ukyo laughed out loud. "Relax, Hibiki! Nobody's gonna get 'clobbered'!"

"At least not right now, huh?" He said dryly, which earned him a solid elbow to his face.

Again, it seemed as if the girl wasn't _quite_ as laidback as she pretended to be.

* * *

Nevertheless, Ryoga found himself feeling a bit more respect for Ukyo after the trip to the hot springs. Instead of kicking him into next week, she'd actually handled the delicate situation quite well, even managing to calm him down and make him feel a bit better about himself, even if it had turned out in the end that she was a bit provoked after all. The girl had spirit, that much was certain.

Ukyo was right, it was nice to know someone he could just spend a little time with without having too worry about all sorts of things; with Ranma, everything was a contest, and the boy loved to tease him endlessly, and with Akane, he was always so worried about what she thought about him and whether this was the day his curse would be revealed.

Ukyo could be extremely bad-tempered at times, but something about this vacation had made her have an oddly sunny disposition, and despite himself, he'd actually had what might pass for a good time. She'd seemed more friendly and relaxed than she'd ever seen her before.

They didn't go to the hot springs again, however, because Ukyo insisted on spending the rest of their one week at Atami on the beach, cashing in on all the tourists who were more than willing to buy okonomiyaki from such a "nice, polite, young Kansai girl". He supposed the extra money was one of the things that had made her so cheerful.

Ryoga complained quite a bit about her using what was supposed to be a vacation for work, and while Ukyo found it annoying, she also felt a little bad about it, because she knew he had no other choice but to sit and watch her work all day; if he tried to go off on his own and see the attractions at Atami, he would get lost. They did go see some of the sights of Atami one afternoon, like the MOMA museum, but then they only had a couple of days left, and she wanted to make the most of them— the most_ money_, admittedly.

So she busied him by setting him to do things like chopping cabbage for her— which he gladly did; there was nothing else to do— and sometimes, when the customers were fewer and farer between, she would try to entertain him by attempting to teach him how to cook okonomiyaki, but he could never quite seem to get the hang of it. He always used too much force right when he was about to flip the dish, sending it into orbit, and Ukyo was getting a little sick of him wasting okonomiyaki ingredients like that.

When Ryoga was finally starting to make some progress with his okonomiyaki cooking skills, however, unfortunately the vacation was already over, and they had to return to Nerima, where she went back to her restaurant and he promptly got lost somewhere.

She wasn't the least bit worried, though; he'd be back eventually to fight Ranma and to make another attempt at asking Akane out on a date. And possibly also to have some of the finest okonomiyaki in Japan.

TBC.

* * *

**Author's note:** I've always thought it was kind of interesting how enthusiastic and pleased Ukyo seemed to be to get a free vacation even if she would be going with Ryoga instead of Ranma, who you'd have to assume would be her first choice. I'm not trying to force in any romance, though— that's not the point!— which is why I had them admit why they teamed up in the first place, and not just make up any fake, lovey-dovey reasons for it.  
I guess I wrote this chapter to give a few glimpses of how they might've interacted at Atami, and to show that the two actually are individuals and have some sort of life even outside of the endless hunt for Ranma and Akane. I guess I'm trying to make this somewhat realistic.

But of course, them getting to know each other better is an obvious set-up for romance longer down the line, muhahahah!

Ahem.

Much longer down, though.

About Ukyo getting a little tipsy…well, I figured that Ryoga's already got enough weaknesses. He doesn't need to have a low tolerance for alcohol as well, huh?

And as for them going to the hot springs together…well, they couldn't go on a hot spring vacation without doing that, now could they? And besides, sometimes it feels like Ranma ½ is more of a bathhouse comedy than a martial arts comedy, doesn't it?

Oh, and I'm mainly basing Ukyo's curiosity about the male body on how she, during the Hiryuu Shoten Ha story arch, wanted Genma to remove his fingers from a very strategic spot on a naked picture of Ranma that Genma was showing her and Akane, while Akane just looked away, clearly embarrassed.

The idea of Ryoga using too much force when cooking okonomiyaki was stolen from Grayson Towler's long-winded but gorgeous _Relentless_. You can find the link to it on my homepage under Ryoga & Ukyo Fanfic Links.

**MOMA Museum:** Atop the hill on the mountainside of Atami Station is the MOMA Museum that possesses approximately 3,500 mainly oriental paintings and applied arts. There is a Noh theater and a golden tearoom annexed on the compound of the Museum (source: the first site that popped up during my Google search).

Next up is chapter six: _Ukyo VS Okonomiyaki._

Ninnik

PS: I'm chopping BROCCOLI! I'm chop- I'm chop- I'm choppin' BRO-HO-CCOLIIIIIII!

* * *


	7. SIX: Ukyo VS Okonomiyaki

**Between**  
By Ninnik Nishukan

* * *

**SIX****: Ukyo VS Okonomiyaki**

* * *

Ryoga almost went straight past it. It was only by coincidence that he happened to glance to his right and look at the shop, and he stopped as some sort of sense of familiarity came over him. It was hard to recognize it without the banners, but when he'd stared at it for a minute or so, he was quite sure that it was indeed Ucchan's Okonomiyaki.

It wasn't any wonder that he hadn't recognized it at first, though.

The place was boarded up, actually _boarded_ up.

His eyebrows joining in a fascinated, confused frown, he stepped closer to the shop, putting his palms flat against the boards and trying to peer inside the shop through a crack between them. It was completely dark inside, and it made him feel...uneasy. Why had Ukyo, who loved okonomiyaki so much, decided to close up shop for good? She hadn't been evicted, had she? He had no idea how well her business was going, but she was pretty talented at what she did, so surely she had to have enough customers to be able cover her rent, right?

What could have happened?

_Shit,_ he thought suddenly, his heart sinking; it couldn't have been that Ukyo had decided to move away because Ranma and Akane had— could it?

"Uh, excuse me? We're closed today."

Ryoga whipped around, startled as somebody suddenly spoke to him, and caught sight of Ukyo a few meters away, coming down the street, carrying a large bag of some sort.

"Umm…" Ryoga backed away, blushing a little as he held up his hands in a placating way. He had to have looked kind of creepy, hadn't he, trying to stare into her shop like that, his nose practically flat against the wall—

"Ryoga?" Ukyo tilted her head at him, looking surprised.

"Uh…hi, Ukyo." He mumbled, wiggling his fingers at her in a half-hearted wave.

"Long time, no see, Sugar!" Her entire face lit up, then, and he felt compelled to grin back, though a bit sheepishly in his case.

"Yeah, really," he nodded; it had to be at least a month or two since they'd last seen each other. Not since they'd stayed at Atami together.

Ukyo stepped up to her shop, still grinning. "You're just what I need right now!"

"Huh?" He asked, completely puzzled.

"A customer!" She laughed.

His eyebrows shot up. "Looks kind of closed to me."

"Only a temporary setback," She flapped a hand, brushing off his comment, before dumping the big bag at his feet. When Ryoga looked down, it turned out to be full of okonomiyaki equipment. "Just wait here, I need to go around the back to get a hammer—"

Ukyo halted in her steps when she heard this strange noise, as of protesting wood and metal.

When she turned around she saw that he was simply pulling the boards off with his fingers, as easily as if he was removing the lid from a container of biscuits or something. It wasn't_ that_ remarkable; she knew she could've removed the boards without a hammer as well if she really wanted to…but not with such complete and utter effortlessness as he.

"Thanks." She told him, shaking her head in amusement.

He simply shrugged as he pulled off the last few boards, secretly relieved to have discovered that Ucchan's wasn't closed for good after all.

* * *

"Um, Ukyo, I...I don't really have much cash on me right now..."Ryoga said nervously, feeling a bit embarrassed as he watched Ukyo start up the grill.

"No problem." She smiled as she began chopping cabbage. "This one's on the house. It's always more fun to cook when you're cooking for someone else."

"Okay..." Ryoga nodded, feeling relieved that he wouldn't have to pay, yet a little ashamed of the same fact.

"Seafood okonomiyaki okay?"

"Sure."

There was silence as Ukyo prepared an okonomiyaki for him with lightning-fast movements.

"I did it again, I guilt-tripped Ranma to get my way." She suddenly told him in an offhanded kind of way, and he looked up from fiddling with a pair of restaurant chopsticks.

"Huh?"

Ukyo bit her lip and shook her head as if to say he should just forget she'd even said anything, shrugging as she sprinkled bonito flakes on the okonomiyaki before gesturing to him that it was ready and he could help himself. Ryoga kept looking at her even as he piled some okonomiyaki onto his plate.

"Why was the shop closed, Ukyo?" He asked curiously as he dug into his food, and Ukyo leaned on the back counter, sighing.

"Okay, I guess I could tell you..."

After she'd told him the story of the secret okonomiyaki sauce that she'd thought had failed and how she'd given up her okonomiyaki career and devoted herself to being Ranma's wife instead, only to find out that it was he who'd ruined the sauce all those years ago, and about the promise he'd recklessly made at age six to take care of her for the rest of his life if the sauce was good, Ryoga found that his body was humming with suppressed anger.

Another person hurt by Saotome Ranma's past mistakes—

"Ukyo!"He said fiercely. "If there's anything I can do to make you feel better...!" She'd cheered him up so many times— well, granted, she hadn't always been very tactful about it, but— and now he felt obligated to return the favour, especially when she'd been kind enough to give him food.

Ukyo paused, touched by the sudden display of concern, but then shook her head dismissively. "That's okay, Ryoga, I'm fine now."

Ryoga frowned worriedly; Ukyo had always been so much better at hiding her emotions than him, but even he could see that she wasn't doing as fine as she pretended to be. "Ukyo, I'm serious, if there's anything..." He insisted. "If you want me to beat up Ranma for you, I will!"

Ukyo blinked at him in surprise, slightly taken aback. She wasn't used to chivalry, and certainly not from him, and she realized that she felt a little flattered, but at the same time— "Very funny, Ryoga," She scoffed, "I think you _know _you'll have to deal with _me_ if you try to lay a finger on my Ranchan!"

Ryoga shrunk back from her wrath. He hadn't thought of that; beating up Ranma just seemed to be the default answer to everything. "Uh, r-right. Silly suggestion, sorry..."

Ukyo sighed, her expression softening a bit as she settled down, satisfied that he wasn't going to go after Ranma. "You jackass," she chuckled quietly, "don't you know that you're giving me exactly what I need just by sitting here and enjoying my cooking?"

His eyes widening, Ryoga gaped at her. "I am?"

She nodded. "I told you that a customer was just what I needed. I feel so silly now for closing down the restaurant and just not doing what I love to do anymore..." She said wistfully.

Ryoga frowned. "Yeah, you know, I can't help but think that closing down your restaurant and abandoning your career just because you thought you'd made some bad sauce when you were six...well, it seems a little melodramatic, doesn't it?"

"Hey!" Ukyo barked, leaning menacingly across the sizzling grill, the steam curling around her angry face. "Six or sixty, an okonomiyaki chef is an okonomiyaki chef! We take our trade very seriously, I'll have you know! It would have been a blemish on the Kuonji name if it'd really been me who'd made that sauce! We live and breathe okonomiyaki ever since the moment we're born— do you _understand_?" She growled, grabbing the front of his shirt.

"I understand! I understand!" Ryoga squeaked, his chest only a couple of inches from the grill's scalding surface.

Huffing, Ukyo abruptly let go of him so he fell back on the stool he'd been sitting on with a soft thump. "Besides, you're not exactly the right person to accuse someone of being melodramatic, you know," she mumbled begrudgingly.

"Fine." Ryoga sighed heavily as he tried to straighten out his now crooked shirt. "I get it. No criticizing the seriousness of being an okonomiyaki chef."

Ukyo eyed him suspiciously, trying to figure out if he was poking fun at her, but couldn't quite read his expression. "Have some more tea," she snapped mildly, refilling his cup and pushing it back at him too forcefully, so it wobbled dangerously, spilling a few drops on the counter. Grumbling to herself, she promptly wiped irritably at the spilled tea with a dish rag. She took pride in keeping a clean restaurant even when she was annoyed.

"Thanks," Ryoga muttered. He'd known she was ridiculously involved when it came to okonomiyaki, but who knew Ukyo was _that _touchy about it?

"You're welcome," Ukyo said sternly as she poured herself some tea.

They shared a stretch of silence, both preoccupied with their own thoughts as they slowly sipped their tea, looking at nothing.

Ukyo laughed suddenly, then, a bright, rolling, exasperated laugh, and he gave her an uncomprehending look.

"What?"

"I...I chose okonomiyaki over Ranma!" She giggled, with a somewhat hysterical undertone. "Well, it's only temporarily, but still—"

"What...what's so funny about that?" He asked, baffled.

Ukyo wiped her eyes, grinning. "Nothing. It's just one of those 'you had to be there' kinds of things."

Ryoga shrugged, sending her a perplexed glance. "If you say so."

Ukyo chuckled briefly before grabbing the cooking oil. "Now...what do you want on your next okonomiyaki?"

"Another one? Really?" Ryoga asked, surprised, trying to hide his eagerness to have more food; he hadn't eaten for many hours before he'd stumbled upon the Ucchan's.

Nodding, Ukyo gave him an enthusiastic smile. "I've just had a week-long break from okonomiyaki. There's nothing I'd rather do right now than to cook it for someone."

"That's...good," Ryoga cracked a grin. "Because I'm really still very hungry," he confessed, blushing just slightly.

"Don't worry, I can keep this up all night if you want to!" Ukyo laughed happily as she poured the batter on the grill.

Ryoga smiled slightly. "That's okay, I don't have to be anywhere."

* * *

_TBC._

**Author's note:** I just felt it would nice if Ryoga was Ukyo's first customer after she closed her okonomiyaki shop that one time.

Next up: _The Lion Chasing Its Own Tail._

Is it about the Shi Shi Hokodan VS Moko Takabisha story arch, you ask?

Well…yes.

By the way…does anybody know what happened to Chelsea's Ry/Uk Fanfic Archive _Casual Elegance_?


	8. SEVEN: The Lion Chasing Its Own Tail

**Between**  
By Ninnik Nishukan

* * *

**SEVEN: The Lion Chasing Its Own Tail

* * *

**

There was laughter, and he turned quickly, feeling paranoid. Laughter at his expense was the _last_ thing he wanted right then. What if it was _Ranma_ who—

It wasn't.

"You're at it _again_?"

His brightened for a second as he caught sight of Ukyo's grinning face, but then his shoulders drooped again. He really wasn't in the mood for any company, and Ukyo was always so...she was just such a _powerful_ presence...

It was different this time, Ukyo realized as soon as their eyes met, as soon as she saw his dejected posture where he sat on the park bench. _That _was different; his eyes, his face, his body language—everything. He wasn't just sulking or moping, he looked really...depressed. Really drained; both physically and mentally. He didn't even say hi to her, he just barely glanced at her before he kind of...sunk in on himself.

"Ryoga…?" She asked tentatively, taking a few steps toward him.

Finally he looked up, and his eyes looked so sad and vacant that she had to swallow hard, barely keeping herself from taking a step back again.

Ryoga felt a tiny, tiny spark of hope in his chest at the soft tone of her voice; was she really not going to tease him and bother him this time? Was there somebody who actually cared enough to ask him how he was doing? It fizzled out just as easily as it had turned up, however, because would it really make any difference? He'd still have all his problems and— and—

"All she wanted was for me to cheer up Ranma!" He blurted, unable to contain his hurt any longer, despite it all. "She was only concerned about him and his precious feelings!"

Ukyo stood and stared at him for a moment before she made a decision.

"Tell me the story," she said, settling down on the bench next to him, sort of excited to hear it despite feeling sorry for Ryoga. It'd be interesting to hear about an adventure that Ranma had had and she hadn't participated in. "At least you chose a better place to mope this time," she added with a small grin as she made herself comfortable.

Ryoga gave her an apprehensive look, afraid that she wasn't taking him seriously, but eventually nodded, beginning his tale. If nothing else, an opportunity to vent might do him some good even if it wouldn't solve his problems.

* * *

The boy did a technique fuelled by depression. Ukyo thought incredulously, after he'd told her everything. By _depression_. 

"Do you have _any_ idea how insane that is?" She asked him, leaning forward with a concerned, disbelieving look.

A small frown line appeared on Ryoga's brow. "Is it?"

She nodded vigorously. "Yes. Yes, it is. Stark, raving mad. Completely bonkers."

"No, it's not!" Ryoga objected, finally jolting to life again at her insult; or slightly crude expression of worry, whatever it was.Either way, he felt like defending himself._ "You_ gave up your career as a chef for him! I just wanted to beat him again— for_ real_ this time--- and if I had to be a little down to do it—"

Ukyo gaped at him. Talk about an understatement! "_What_? 'A little down'? Try 'wallowing in your own misery'! My career was one thing— your _mental health_ is something different! Do you _like_ being depressed? Who _are_ you? Eeyore?"

Ryoga blinked in confusion. "Who?"

"Oh, forget it." Ukyo sighed heavily. "Listen, you don't have to be all warm and fuzzy or anything, but at least you should be able to smile once in a while, you know? And I don't mean those strained, half-hearted therapy smiles, either!"

Again, he looked at her with incomprehension. "Therapy smiles?"

Ukyo gave an impatient grunt. "You haven't watched a lot of TV in your lifetime, have you?"

He shook his head. "No."

"Okay, just forget it, then." She waved a hand vaguely, sighing with mild irritation. "Just, you know…feel better and stuff."

"Feel better?" If the situation had been any different, Ryoga might've felt inclined to laugh at her lame attempt at playing his therapist, but as it was, he couldn't get up the energy to smile, even a half-hearted one. Even the somewhat insensitive, yet usually cheerful Ukyo didn't have anything to say to make him feel better, and now everything felt so hopeless again. "I lost. Even after all that. I put myself through the wringer emotionally, I deliberately made myself more and more depressed to win— and I _lost_. And now I just feel so dead, like there's nothing left in me, like I've used everything up." He sniffled quietly. "And she said we'd…we'd be friends forever…"

Her heart broke for him as he began sinking down into misery again when she thought she'd managed to pull him up from it. If Ranchan ever told her that, she didn't know what she'd do.

Ryoga wasn't crying in a loud, melodramatic way either, he was just kind of…_shaking_, barely making any sound at all, big, fat tears rolling down his face and dampening the front of his shirt.

And it was seriously freaking her out.

"Snap out of it!" Ukyo blurted nervously, smacking his shoulder, but it didn't even make him flinch. "Come on!" She went on, pulling at his hair, but all he did was turn his face away from her. Getting agitated, she finally got out her spatula and hit him over the head with it, hard.

This time he winced, but he still didn't stop crying, not even to yell at her.

Now she was getting to be honestly worried.

She thought for a while. "What _you_ need, Ryoga, is a big hug!" She announced suddenly.

_That_ made him react! Finally! His entire body froze, and he snapped for air. "Wh-wh-what? A-a-a h-huh…huh…h-hug?"

She rolled her eyes in a good-natured but overbearing way. "Yeah. Exactly."

"Um…Ukyo?" Ryoga swallowed hard. Was she…?

"Excuse me! Granny!" Ukyo exclaimed abruptly, running across the street towards a cozy-looking, rounded grandma-type lady who was obviously out doing her shopping. Skidding to a halt, she smiled at the older woman and bowed slightly to her. "I don't mean to sound rude, but if I gave you five hundred yen, would you please hug that nice but sad young man over there? He's feeling a little down, you see."

Ryoga almost swallowed his own tongue from the shock value. What the _hell_…?

The old lady looked horrified for a moment, but then burst out laughing as she caught sight the bright red face of the young man across the street. "Oh, you almost had me there, Miss! That's a good one! You shouldn't embarrass your friends like that, you know." She added in a mildly reprimanding but mostly amused voice.

"Actually, I _wasn't_ kiddi—"Ukyo began, but the woman didn't notice.

"Wait 'till I tell my husband," The old woman grinned, winking at Ukyo before walking away, still chuckling to herself.

Ukyo looked puzzled when she crossed the street again. When she met his eyes, she saw that he was already staring at her. "What's wrong?"

"What _wrong_? That's _my_ line!" He snapped. "What the hell was _that_ for?"

Ukyo shrugged, the very picture of innocence. "Well, I just thought it'd make you feel better."

"And I just thought that _you_— forget it." Ryoga's mouth snapped shut as he cut himself off, shaking his head as he looked down, thoroughly discomfited and still slightly pissed off.

"What?" Ukyo asked, tilting her head curiously at him.

"Nothing." He mumbled in a tight voice.

"Wait, you thought _I _was gonna hug you?" She asked incredulously, a mirthful tone creeping into her voice.

Slowly, Ryoga's cheeks reddened as his downcast gaze travelled up to her face. "Um…"

Ukyo laughed out loud. "What, and have you_ bleeding_ all over my shirt? Don't be_ silly_!"

Ryoga took a step back, feeling the insult like a twist of his heart. "Well, thanks a _lot_," he said bitterly, scowling at her.

Her eyes widened. "Wait…did you actually _want_ me to…?"

"N-no!" He stuttered. "Now _you're_ being silly!"

Ukyo shook her head, looking exasperated. "You need a mother-type hug right now, Ryoga, not from _me_!"

Shaken, he paused at her words with a wistful look in his eyes, staring at her for a second before he hung his head, looking crestfallen. "I…I haven't seen my mom in a year…"

That stopped her; she'd never thought of that before. Probably no one ever did. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah, well…" He mumbled evasively.

Ukyo swallowed. "Here I was trying to cheer you up and everything, too…"

He frowned. "It's not always that easy."

"I guess…" She sighed.

He shook his head. "And it's not your problem, anyway."

She looked up, puzzled. "Not my problem?"

"No…" He mumbled, still shaking his head.

"Ryoga…I know I'm not your mother or your girlfriend or your fiancée or your sister or even your best friend…" She said tryingly. "But I can still care a little, can't I?"

Ryoga looked mystified as he sought her eyes, trying to figure out what she was thinking. "Y-you can?"

She shrugged. "All I know is that I don't want to see you like this. It's like you're worse every time I find you moping around Nerima, you know?"

He looked down again, slightly ashamed. "Sorry…"

Ukyo rolled her eyes. "Oh, what the hell…" She muttered before stepping forward to draw him into a hug. She held him like that for a while, arms around him until she felt him tentatively reach around her as well, his arms trembling, and she allowed herself to rest her face against his warm, solid shoulder for a moment. Then she gave him one last, good squeeze, patting him gently on the back before she let him go.

She flashed him a smile when they parted. "How was that? A little human contact always does the trick, huh?"

"Y-yes…" He agreed in a small voice, and she could see that the whole thing had struck him to the core; he was still trembling.

"Feel any better?" She went on when he didn't say anything, only looked at her, or maybe at something behind her; she wasn't sure.

He nodded slowly, feeling as if he'd just fallen overboard a supposedly empty ship...yet someone had just thrown him a safety ring. It didn't make any sense to him. "Why are you doing this?" He demanded softly, searching her face nervously. There had to be an angle. There always was. People always had an angle; he always got hurt whenever he assumed or at least hoped they didn't.

She shrugged. "You're all I've got, right? Can't have you falling apart. Who else would help me with Ranma and Akane?" There was a brief, crooked grin. "Who else would I _banter_ with?"

"Can't you just banter with your beloved _Ranchan_?" He asked sarcastically.

She shook her head as if the thought was inconceivable. "Oh, no, Ranchan and I never fight! I don't want to banter with him, I just want to be nice to him! He's got such a tough life, you know?" She gave a somewhat dramatic sigh. "And he always fights so much with Akane, so I want to show him that I'm different! I don't want to give him a bad impression!"

Ryoga rolled his eyes at her dreamy ramblings; it was beyond him how she could view Ranma that way. "But if _I_ get a bad impression of you, it doesn't matter, right?"

Ukyo gave a wide grin. "Exactly!"

"Gee, thanks," he muttered.

"Oh, come on," Ukyo rolled her eyes. "So what if I try to act cute around Ranma? As if you act like _this_ around Akane? You're all '_oh, hiiiii, Akane',_ pouring on the sugar like there's no tomorrow! I swear your voice goes up at least a pitch or two! You're a total dork around her!"

"Wh-what? Hey! I'm not!" He objected, reddening as he snapped for air.

"You even tell her that her cooking is great." She said with a sense of finality, as if that was the only evidence she needed, sending him a rather meaningful look.

"Come on! It's not _that_ bad!"He began half-heartedly, knowing that she was right, but not willing to admit to it. Besides, Akane could probably get better if she only tried harder, anyway. She had such will power and spirit, after all…

Ukyo rolled her eyes. "See? Total dork."

Ryoga reddened further. "Oh, yeah? And what happened to _'oh, Ryoga, why would I be wasting any time on trying to get you to date Akane if I didn't think you were good enough for her'_?" He said irritably, doing a high-pitched, silly impression of her voice.

Ukyo blinked. "What are you talking about?"

"You said that at Atami—"He began, but interrupted himself with a dry: "Oh, except you were probably to drunk to remember, right?"

Ukyo gritted her teeth. "I was _not_ drunk!"

Ryoga scoffed. "Sure."

Folding her arms over her chest, Ukyo scowled at him. "I was just a little tipsy, that's all. "

A smirk tugged at the side of his mouth. "You just keep telling yourself that."

Ukyo stomped her foot in annoyance. They both knew she hadn't actually been drunk; now he was obviously just trying to wind her up. "Look! I was just saying that, well…in the beginning when you're trying to date someone, you don't burst out about all your bad sides at once, right? Or you'll scare the date away. So what's wrong with me trying to show Ranchan that I can be sweet and caring, huh?"

Ryoga sent her a reproachful look. "It wouldn't hurt if you tried to be a little nicer to me, too."

Ukyo sighed. "It's a little too late for that now, isn't it?" She shrugged. "Besides, everybody needs someone they can let loose a little with, right? Someone they can be crabby around without it having any consequences? It's like your family, right? You can be yourself around your family, however annoying, and they'll still love you."

His eyes shot wide open at her shocking words. "Wh-what?"

She got a strange look on her face, then, as if she'd just realized what she'd said and what it must've sounded like to him. "No! No, listen, I didn't mean…oh, come on! I just meant that I don't have to be all cute around you since I'm not trying to marry you or anything, okay? You get that, right? There's no pressure, that's the thing. I don't have to impress you, is what I'm saying."

His shoulders slumped with reprieve as he heard her explanation. "Okay, yeah. I guess I can understand that."

"And that's a good thing, right?" She smiled just a little. "I mean, it's nice to have someone you can just talk to, huh? Because we couldn't exactly talk to Ranma and Akane about breaking them up, now could we?"

Ryoga smirked slightly, despite himself. "Yeah, that would be one _weird_ conversation."

* * *

As Ukyo walked home after saying goodbye to Ryoga, she pondered the embrace she'd shared with him.

A little human contact really_ was_ nice, she thought, surprised at how sad she suddenly felt. That was the only reciprocated hug she'd had in _two months_, she'd realized now, the last one being when she'd visited her father in Osaka. It wasn't only sad— it was _pathetic_, wasn't it?

Well, at least she'd made somebody feel better; at least she'd actually made a difference. And that made her able to overlook her lack of regular physical contact for the time being.

Because today, for just a moment, she'd felt needed.

As he wandered in search of a camp site for the evening, Ryoga had to admit to himself that he felt better. He still felt a bit drained and unsteady after everything that had happened, but there was still something different now. He felt just a little less cold and numb, and he wasn't dragging his steps as he walked anymore. It was as if Ukyo's show of compassion had thawed him a little; it had been like a crutch to a man with a limp. He still wasn't fully recovered, but it had helped.

It had really helped.

For the rest of the night, he had the reassuring feeling that maybe he wasn't as utterly alone in the world as what he usually felt like.

* * *

_TBC._

**Author's note:** Hah! I bet NOBODY expected me to update again this soon! Muhahahah!

Unless you don't know, Eeyore is a gloomy, negative character from Winnie-The-Pooh, which is huge in Japan.** '**Therapy smiles' are from Ally McBeal. Did it run in Japan? I have no idea, but I'm thinking it did considering how big it was.

I'm not really doing the Cursed Tunnel of Lost Love this time around since I've already handled the subject in _The Exit_. Besides, I don't know, there didn't really seem to be that many missing scenes in it. It will be referred to heavily in the next chapter, though.

Next up: _Ryoga VS Ukyo_.

* * *


	9. EIGHT: Ryoga VS Ukyo

**Between**  
By Ninnik Nishukan

* * *

**EIGHT: Ryoga VS Ukyo**

* * *

It had been a pleasant visit to the Ucchan's, Ranma thought, before he'd opened his big mouth to congratulate Ukyo on her brand new relationship with Ryoga.

It was like dropping a very, very tiny batch of napalm.

"_What_?" Ukyo exploded with outrage. "You think that _Ryoga's_ my _boyfriend_?"

"You mean you're not…?" Ranma seemed to deflate then, as if under the weight of a big disappointment."But you guys went on that hot spring trip together and everything, and I just thought that maybe—"

Ukyo reddened, a small burst of panic flaring up in her chest. Why was he even asking her that? Didn't he trust her? And why wasn't he looking _angry_ if he suspected that there was something between her and another guy? Why was he looking _hopeful_? "I'm engaged to_ you_, Ranchan!" She reminded him forcefully. "Why would I want somebody else when I've got _you_?"

"Oh. Yeah. " He sighed heavily, putting his chin in his hand and looking wistfully into the middle distance. "Of course not..." _I can just never catch a break, can I?_

Ukyo gritted her teeth, agitated and nervous over how he was acting, and desperate to say something. Anything. "Why would I wanna be with that dim-witted, directionless, spineless—"She snapped for air as if she couldn't think of any more insults at the moment and this fact annoyed her.

"Ryoga's not so bad once you get to know him," Ranma began, somewhat optimistically, "I mean, he's…uh, strong and…" Ranma floundered a bit as he cast around for positive words to describe the pig boy with. "And uh…strong." He said lamely, but then started up again as if he'd gained a second wind. "And he's loyal and sensitive and romantic and all that crap girls like, right?" He said, pleased with himself for coming up with it, but sighed again as he caught the provoked look on her face.

"Not so _bad_? He's hardly boyfriend material, is he? I mean, he's never even around when you need him—"

"Yet somehow I'm _always_ around to hear you saying stuff like that."

Ranma and Ukyo whipped around to stare at the newcomer. "R-Ryoga?" Ukyo stuttered, momentarily embarrassed at being caught badmouthing him, but quickly rallied. "See? You always show up at the worst of times!" She snapped, her face red. "What are you even doing here?"

"I was going to ask this rude, bossy, cross-dressing okonomiyaki chef I know if she could show me to the Tendo dojo since I'm so directionless!" He barked back.

Ukyo's eyes narrowed; she hated it when people picked on her unusual dress habits. "I'd rather be rude and bossy than a babbling, spineless wimp!"

"At least I'm not talking crap about you when you turn your back for five minutes!" He retorted, clutching the straps on his backpack until he could hear them creak under his grip.

"What was I supposed to say? Ranchan was implying that you were—"She pointed at the spot where Ranma had been sitting and saw that he suddenly wasn't there anymore. And she hadn't even noticed him leaving!

Outside, Ranma was running as if he had an army of cats on his trail. Boyfriend and girlfriend or not— whatever the hell was going on between Ryoga and Ukyo, Saotome Ranma was _not_ going to get caught up in it!

"_Now_ see what you did!" Ukyo exclaimed in dismay and annoyance. "You made Ranma _leave_!"

Ryoga scoffed. "_Me_? I'm pretty sure you did that all by yourself with all that screaming!"

Ukyo blushed. "Oh, shut up! It's just you with your idiotic—"

"You know," Ryoga's voice lowered to a growl. "It's kind of says a lot when even _Ranma_ manages to say something nice about me, but all _you _can do is put me down! What the hell is wrong with you?"

Ukyo's eyes hardened with anger. "It's all your fault! Ranma thinks you're my stupid boyfriend after the ghost cave! You and your complete inability to follow even the simplest instructions! I wouldn't have had to do all that dragging you to the side and whispering with you if you'd only been able to comprehend that simple plan! That's why they thought we were together, because we looked so secretive, which we would have never—"

"You came up with that moronic plan in the first place!" He took a few steps forward, his fists tightening in indignation. "Why don't you just blame yourself, you overbearing, arrogant, bossy little smart aleck!"

Ukyo bore down on him as well, until she was all but yelling into his face. "It would've worked out fine if you'd just been able to follow it, you empty-headed, no-attention-span-having, overemotional jackass!"

"Okonomiyaki-for-brains!"

"It's better to have okonomiyaki up there than nothing at all!"

"Short-tempered, violent maniac!"

"Hah! _You_ of all people are calling _me_ short-tempered and violent? Is that supposed to be a _joke_?"

"Gender confused tomboy!"

"Directionally challenged social reject!"

It was at that point that Ryoga noticed that she'd gotten out her spatula and was brandishing it threateningly. "Oh, yes? You wanna _fight_?" He asked her in a silky, cold voice, pulling down his bamboo umbrella from his backpack.

Ukyo clutched her spatula until her knuckles whitened, her teeth grinding together. "I sure wouldn't mind knocking some sense into that thick skull of yours!"

Ryoga was about to retort, but with a strange sensation, like mental stumbling, suddenly he realized what he'd almost done. He'd been so angry he'd almost tried to beat up a girl. Because that's what would've happened; he would have beat her up, because while Ukyo was quite a talented martial artist and would be able to hold her own against him for a while, he would've overpowered her pretty quickly. Because even without bragging, he knew he was on a much higher level than her.

His shoulders sagging a little, he replaced his umbrella on his backpack. "M-maybe we shouldn't…" He mumbled, feeling ashamed.

Ukyo stared at him, at his suddenly slightly flushed face and downcast eyes, and she got it. They'd both almost let themselves get completely carried away. While she didn't like to admit it, Ryoga was stronger and more skilled than she at martial arts, so it would've soon become a one-sided fight. Besides, she'd been so distracted she'd actually challenged the human wrecking ball to a fight_ inside__her own restaurant_…!

"Yeah…" She said quietly. "It probably wouldn't be any good for business to destroy my restaurant…"

Ryoga simply looked down, his face now burning with guilt. How was it that she could make him lose control of himself like that? How could she provoke him so? It was kind of like with Ranma, only different in some indefinable way. He should know better! And she wasn't even dressed as a boy now!

"Listen," she began softly, "it's closing time now anyway, so I thought I'd just throw together some yakisoba for dinner and call it a night."

"Right." He said dejectedly, starting to shuffle towards the door, dragging his feet without even noticing it.

"Are you hungry?"

Blinking, he turned around. "Huh?"

She was looking a little self-conscious as she fiddled with a spatula. "Well, are you?"

He gaped at her. "Yes, but…"

She grinned lopsidedly. "Trying to fight on an empty stomach, even?" She clucked her tongue, casting him a backwards glance as she walked around the grill. "No personal regard for your own health, huh?"

"Ukyo, you don't have to give me food, I—"

"You like yakisoba, right?" She said absently, ignoring his objections as she started up the grill and began chopping cabbage.

He hesitated; yakisoba usually had pork in it. "Ukyo, you _really_ don't have to—"

"I don't mind," she said, smiling a little. "I'd like the company. Eating dinner alone gets old after a while, am I right?"

Ryoga sent her a slightly surprised look; he'd never really considered the fact that like himself, Ukyo had to be eating dinner alone every night. Of course it would have to be like that since she lived alone, but he'd just never… "Okay," He relented, sighing. "But can I have the yakisoba without…uh, p-pork?"

Ukyo blinked. "Huh? I know you're not a vegetarian—"

"I…i-it's not very healthy, that's all…" Ryoga interrupted her evasively, reddening as he came over to sit at the counter, slipping off his backpack and placing it on the floor next to the stool.

Lifting her eyebrows sceptically at him, she nevertheless obliged him, not wanting to start up another argument. "Okay, one order of shrimp yakisoba coming up!" She declared, improvising.

Ryoga watched in silence as Ukyo prepared their meals with fast movements; it was almost mesmerizing to watch her hands moving, trying to guess where they'd be next and where they'd been. The girl sure was quick and nimble, he had to give her that.

"You know," he said as he idly played with his chopsticks, "I think you would probably have a good shot at learning the Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken if you only put your mind to it…"

Ukyo looked up from her work as she flipped the orders of yakisoba around one last time. "You really think so?" She asked with a baffled expression on her face.

"Hmm?" Ryoga said absently, focusing on her face again. He hadn't even been completely aware that he'd said it out loud. "Well, yeah." He shrugged.

"Dig in," Ukyo prompted him, gesturing for the yakisoba as she handed him a small plate and a cup of cold, green tea to go with it. Her gaze was trained on his face, though, a curious look in her eyes, so he realized that she was expecting him to elaborate.

"Why not?" He shrugged again, glancing at her as she came around the grill again with her own cup and plate, taking a seat next to him to eat her dinner. "You could ask Ranma to teach you," he suggested, "or maybe Cologne, since she was the one who taught him in the first place. Besides, she'd probably be a much better teacher than that obnoxious—"

He dropped his chopsticks as she elbowed him in the ribs. When he turned to scowl at her, he found her scowling back. "I give you a free meal and all you do is insulting my fiancée?" She asked tightly, offended.

Ryoga laughed sheepishly. "Uh…well…no, you could ask either one of them to teach you, I guess…either one would be f-fine…" He backtracked feebly.

Ukyo gave him a somewhat overbearing, amused smile. "Maybe I _will_ ask them." She announced, snapping a pair of restaurant chopsticks apart to start her dinner. "Thanks," she added then, a bunch of fried noodles halting halfway to her mouth as she glanced at him.

"No problem," he nodded as he also tucked into his dinner.

They finished their meal in relative silence, both deep in thought as they sipped their tea. When Ryoga realized it was probably getting late, he wiped his mouth with a napkin and got up, bowing politely to her. "I, uh…I should be going." He said apologetically. "You probably want to go to bed now, right?"

"Yeah," Ukyo nodded slowly as she watched him shoulder his backpack again. "So, um…bye."

"Bye," he echoed, dipping his head in a bow of thanks again before turning to leave.

Suddenly Ukyo found herself rushing after him, though, catching his sleeve just as he was halfway out the door. "Ryoga!"

Ryoga paused as he was tugged a little backwards by his sleeve, turning his head to look at her in confusion. "U-Ukyo?"

She looked a little awkward then, quickly letting go of his sleeve, her gaze turning towards the floor. "I just wanted to say, you know…sorry." She shrugged as she met with his eyes again. "We've kinda become friends, right? So I shouldn't have said all that stuff about you. I mean, Ranma was even defending you, strange as it may seem, while I just…I'm sorry."

Ryoga regarded her with wide eyes; whatever it was that she'd stopped him for, he hadn't expected an apology. Maybe a bill for the food or an offer to take him to Akane, but not this, and certainly not—

"F-friends?" He stuttered. "You m-mean you really do consider _me_ as…as your friend?" He'd just assumed that what she'd said at Atami hadn't really carried that much meaning, but here she was, saying it again…

"Well, we've had some times, right? Listening to each other complain and stuff." Ukyo grinned quirkily. "Besides, you don't think I'd give my _enemies_ any free food, do you?" She joked lamely.

Ryoga shook his head slowly, his eyes still wide. "That's…thanks." He seemed to come to himself again, then, clearing his throat self-consciously. "I'm really sorry for the things I said as well," he told her solemnly. "I shouldn't have…"

Ukyo flapped a hand in dismissal. "Oh, I know I can be a…what was it? Oh, yeah," she grinned hugely, "…an _overbearing, arrogant, bossy little smart aleck,_ right?"

Ryoga's cheeks flushed badly. He'd actually _said_ that, hadn't he? "Don't worry," he muttered, "I know I can be…um…an _empty-headed, no-attention-span-having, overemotional jackass_, too."

Ukyo chuckled, briefly hiding her blushing face in her hand. "Oh, wow…that was some argument, huh?"

"One for the books." He nodded, smiling slightly.

"So…goodnight, anyway," She said, still smiling a little as she reached out and offered her hand for him to shake in a friendly settlement. "Peace?"

"Peace." He agreed, shaking her hand firmly before he turned and finally walked into the dark night.

Ukyo watched him leave for a moment or two before locking up her restaurant. It was a good thing the jackass had a mobile home on his back, or she might've actually had to be worried about where he'd be sleeping that night…

* * *

_TBC. _

**Author's note:** If anybody's wondering why I published this chapter relatively quickly, it's because unlike chapter six and seven, it's been finished for months already.

It was kind of hard coming up with insults for Ryoga since Ukyo doesn't know about his curse at this point. I mean…oh, the _possibilities_!  
Bacon breath, bacon butt, pork butt, pork rinds, pig boy, ham head, spare ribs…the list goes on.

I wrote this chapter because I had to mention The Cursed Tunnel of Lost Love somehow, even if I didn't want to go into that much detail since I've already written _The Exit _about the subject, and because I've wondered a bit about why or when Ranma and Akane stopped assuming that Ryoga and Ukyo were a couple. I wanted an explanation for it.

And of course I simply couldn't resist calling this chapter _Ryoga VS Ukyo._ I'm assuming you'll get the reference.  
Sigh. I simply love writing arguments for them.

Next up: _Latest Impressions_.

* * *


	10. EPILOGUE: Latest Impressions

**Between**  
By Ninnik Nishukan

* * *

**EPI****LOGUE: Latest Impressions**

* * *

Hibiki Ryoga was bored. He'd ended up camping for the night somewhere where there just wasn't anything to look at, and the few books he had he'd read a million times. It was time to buy some new ones.

All he could do was think, and he wasn't too fond of letting his thoughts wander off because they always almost arrived somewhere dark.

Whenever he thought of Akane, he could wrap himself in sugary fantasies for a while…but only for a while.

So he tried to think of something else, someone else, but then he thought of Ranma, and he was filled with those too familiar sensations of frustration, annoyance, anger and humiliation. He was so tired of losing.

Picking at the embers of his dying campfire, he sighed heavily, just letting his thoughts drift for a while until the image of Ranma dissolved gradually…and then surprisingly, was replaced by the image of a just as cheekily grinning girl, though for some reason the expression didn't anger him like it did when Ranma was wearing it. It made him want to grin back.

So…Kuonji Ukyo, huh?

He had a friend now. That was a very strange feeling indeed.

He'd tried to make friends on occasion during junior high, but since he was so shy, was lost so often and since everybody thought he was so weird, it was hard to do.

Now he'd managed to make a friend outside of school, someone who seemed to be glad to see him and who talked to him about personal stuff, not just homework or martial arts. When he talked to her, he'd realized, it wasn't just idle chatter. Sure, they bantered occasionally, calling each other names and throwing other derogatory remarks at each other, but a lot of the time, the good thing about talking to her was that he was able to talk about his thoughts and feelings.

And she always seemed so casual, never scared away by him no matter how emotional he got. She always seemed to take it all with a grain of salt, always telling him he was exaggerating…and whaddaya know, a lot of the time he ended up realizing that he really was, that it was possible to look at things from a different perspective, that it was possible not to throw himself headfirst into depression like it was second nature, nothing but a habit.

The only thing that had seemed to frighten her just a little was the Shi Shi Hokodan. He supposed that was the only reason why she'd…

She'd hugged him. He hadn't expected that.

It hadn't made him blow his top like it did when Akane had hugged him during the whole waterproof soap episode, and it hadn't made him feel loved and safe and warm like when his parents hugged him, but it had made him feel…something.

It had felt real. Real and grounding. Bracing and uplifting, like crisp, fresh air on a clear winter morning, except it hadn't been cold. It had been like a conversation with her, only in physical form. _Relax, Hibiki,_ her arms had said, _don't take things so seriously,_ her arms had went on as they squeezed him lightly against her body, _you're not alone,_ her cheek had told him, resting against his shoulder.

That was what he'd felt. He felt as if he wasn't alone anymore. He felt as if someone was beginning to understand him. Of course, what he'd also felt was her breasts pressed against his chest and the smell of her shampoo, but those were minor points— what had happened to his mind had changed his way of looking at her more than the brief, up-close rediscovery of her femininity that his body had experienced.

And then he'd met her again, later, and she'd told him that he was her friend. And then he'd begun to feel the warmth that was slightly like the one he got from his parents, only not. It was as if a part of him wasn't iced over anymore. It was as if a part of his life had become more bearable.

Gazing out over the scenery, he decided to write a postcard. Getting out his folder of postcards, he chose one with autumn leaves on it and began to write.

**Dear Ukyo,**

He wrote, and immediately erased it, cursing a little as he rubbed away the silly phrase. She'd probably laugh if he wrote that.

**Ukyo,**

He began afresh, but then halted, chewing thoughtfully at his pencil. What in the world was he supposed to say to her anyway? Tapping the pencil against his chin, he appeared lost in thought for a while before he touched the pencil tip onto the card again.

**I'm currently at**

Well, he mused, the sign he was sitting next to said 'this way to Mount Rokko', so that's what he wrote.

**I'm currently near**** Mount Rokko, camping. The weather's okay, but a little cloudy.**

**How ****are you? I hope you're doing fine with the restaurant and with school. **

**With any luck, ****I'll manage to get back to Nerima soon. Maybe I'll stop by when I get there.**

**It was nice**

—_not being alone—_

**having dinner wi****th you the last time I met you. Thank you for**

—_hugging me__ that time,_ Ryoga thought absently, _thank you for always making me feel better even when you're just insulting me—_

**the**** yakisoba. **

**Please give Akane and Ranma my regards.**

**Ryoga**

Okay, that didn't sound too stupid, did it? Now, if he could only manage to find a post office or something tomorrow…

* * *

Kuonji Ukyo was bored. School was excruciatingly slow today. She could've sworn that at one point the teacher had talked at such a tired pace that he was actually talking _backwards_.

Ukyo was usually pretty attentive in class, but this was just one of those days where nothing really caught your fancy. Classes were boring, lunch was boring, the second half of classes were boring, and there were no fights at all. Ranma and Akane weren't even arguing, for pete's sake!

It didn't exactly help that half the class was missing because of a flu bug, either.

What this day needed was Ryoga doing one of his unexpected appearing acts and challenging Ranma. A nice, big fight out in the school yard or on the sports field would liven things up. Only pity was that she didn't have her portable grill with her and wouldn't be able to sell okonomiyaki to the resulting crowd.

And then she could drag Ranma and Ryoga back to her place when Ryoga had lost, to patch them up and feed them okonomiyaki, and when Ranma went home, she could entertain herself by listening to whatever it was that would be Ryoga's next big problem.

It was very peculiar how someone as gloomy as Ryoga was always able to cheer her up like that, but then she'd also discovered that it only took her a few minutes of cheerful comments, sarcastic jokes and carefully interjected coaxing to bring him around again. If all else failed, she could always provoke him into a hissy fit instead so he'd be so annoyed he'd forget all about his depression. He was harder to cheer up than most, but not impossibly so; it was a fun challenge, anyway, and sometimes he even managed to tell her a thing or two to make _her_ feel better when _she_ was feeling down. She'd really kind of started to look forward to the next time he managed to stumble into Nerima again.

After the last class, where the subject had been Geometry and she'd almost fallen asleep, she packed up her book bag and went over to Ranma and Akane, who were just getting ready to leave.

"Ranma, Akane," Ukyo began, "I was wondering…do you guys want to come over to my place? I could fix you something to eat," She suggested, knowing Ranma wouldn't refuse, and indeed Ranma's eyes lit up with expectation, but Akane shook her head.

"We can't," She smiled apologetically."Kasumi's got something special planned for dinner and we promised to help fix this hole in the wall."

Ukyo grinned, trying to hide her disappointment. "Shampoo?"

Akane nodded, sighing. "Shampoo."

"We'll hafta take a rain check. Okay, Ucchan?" Ranma told her with a friendly grin.

Ukyo nodded, waving to them as they left. A moment or two went by, the other students gradually clearing out of the classroom as she only stood there, dreamily contemplated how cute Ranma looked when he smiled like that when she suddenly realized that they were always headed the same way as her and she could at least have walked with them part of the way home. Feeling acutely lonely all of a sudden— when you were sixteen, there was nothing more empty-feeling than a deserted classroom and the long way home alone— she dragged her feet as she walked home, again wishing futilely that Ryoga would suddenly pop up out of nowhere to keep her company, almost expecting that he would each time she turned a corner.

She caught a glimpse of a yellow shirt and shaggy, black hair down the street, and her heart fluttered with hope, but when she looked twice, of course it turned out to be someone she didn't even know.

When she reached her restaurant, she remembered that she'd forgotten to take in the mail that morning. Not expecting to get any kind of interesting mail, she simply stuffed her hand into the mail box, pulled out the mail and shuffled into her house. When she was removing her shoes, however, her eye caught a colourful object among all the bills and commercial leaflets in the small pile of mail dropped she'd on the floor in front of her.

It was a postcard, adorned with red autumn leaves. Her curiosity piqued, she plucked the card up from the floor, turning it over in her hand. Who in the world would be sending her a postcard?

**Ukyo,**

**I'm currently near**** Mount Rokko, camping. The weather's okay, but a little cloudy.**

**How are you? I hope you're doing fine with the restaurant and with school. **

**With any luck,**** I'll manage to get back to Nerima soon. Maybe I'll stop by when I get there.**

**It was nice having dinner with you the last time I met you. Thank you for the yakisoba.**

**Please give Akane and Ranma my regards.**

**Ryoga**

Once the initial surprise had worn off, Ukyo smiled. Having a friend was a comforting thing, even if he was almost never around. Just knowing that someone had thought of her was enough to turn her mood around.

Ukyo hummed to herself as she sauntered up the stairs to change out of her school uniform and make dinner. It was only a pity that Ryoga didn't have a return address.

**END.

* * *

****Author's note:** I actually finished a multi-chapter story for the first time in my life. Sniffle...I can't believe it.

* * *


End file.
